
Class. 



PRESENTED BY 



THB 



PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY 



API LIED TO THB 



PRESERVATION OF HEALTH, 



AND TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF 



PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EDUCATION. 



BY ANDREW COMBE, M.D. 

FEiXOW OP THB ROYAL COLLKOS OF PHYSICIAN* OF EDINBURGH. 



NEW-YORK: 

HARPER <fc DROTHERS-82 CLI F F- 8 TR E BT. 
18 3 9. 






c^ 



Gift from 
liss Alice H. Busheo 
Jan. 6,1986 



MAR 2 1944 




PREFACE. 



The object of the present volume is to lay be» 
fore the public a plain and intelligible description 
of the structure and uses of some of the more im- 
portant organs of the human body, and to show how 
information of this kind may be usefully applied 
both to the preservation of health and to the im- 
provement of physical and mental education. In 
selecting the functions to be treated of, I have pre- 
ferred to examine those which are at once most 
influential in their operation on the general sys- 
tem, and at the same time least familiarly known. 
Some, accordingly, whose sphere of action is com- 
paratively subordinate, I have not even named ; and 
to others of essential consequence in the animal 
economy, such as that of digestion, I have merely 
alluded. To include the first would have added 
to the difficulties of the reader, by the multiplicity 
of unimportant details ; and to treat of the latter 
would have been, in a great measure, a work of su- 
pererogation, as treatises on the digestive organs 
are already in extensive circulation. 

In offering practical rules for the guidance of the 
reader, it has been my constant endeavour to ex- 
hibit the relation subsisting between them and the 
A 



11 PREFACE. 

particular laws of the organization, according to 
which their influence is exerted, that the recom- 
mendation given may rest, as far as possible, on 
the foundation of nature, and not on the doubtful 
authority of any individual. Many of the valuable 
treatises which have already appeared on the sub- 
jects of health and of education seem to me to 
have failed in making an adequate impression on 
the public mind, chiefly from this basis not having 
been brought sufficiently into view ; and thus not 
only have the evils arising from defective education 
been unjustly and invidiously charged against edu- 
cation itself, but the most opposite methods have 
been advocated and practised, with equal earnest- 
ness and plausibility, where a direct reference to 
the laws of the organization would at once have 
dissipated doubt and placed truth in its clearest 
light. 

It is not uninstructive to remark, that, in the case 
of the lower animals, the necessity of modifying the 
method of cultivation according to the peculiarities 
of constitution which they present, has been long 
perceived and consistently acted on, and with such 
success as to afford us good reason for applying the 
same rule to our own species, and for regarding 
every mode of education as erroneous and ineffi- 
cient which is not in harmony with the higher na- 
ture of man. The extent, indeed, to which, by fol- 
lowing this plan, we can carry our influence over 
the lower animals, and secure the development and 
efficiency of almost every organ, has often been the 
theme of admiration and surprise : and there can 



PREFACE. Ill 

scarcely be a doubt that were the same principle 
followed in the cultivation of the physical, moral, 
and intellectual powers of man, and were no rule 
received which is not in accordance with the laws 
of his constitution, a much higher degree of success 
would reward our exertions than we have ever yet 
experienced or anticipated. 

The little regard which has hitherto been paid to 
ihe laws of the human constitution, as the true basis 
on which our attempts to improve the condition of 
man ought to rest, will be obvious from the fact, 
that, notwithstanding the direct uses to which a 
knowledge of the conditions which regulate the 
healthy action of the bodily organs may be applied, 
in the prevention, detection, and treatment of dis- 
ease, there is scarcely a medical school in this 
country in which any special provision is made for 
teaching it ; the pupil being left to elaborate it for 
himself from amid information communicated to 
him for other purposes. In s~me of the foreign 
universities, chairs have been instituted for this pur- 
pose ; and, in France, a journal of Hygiene has ex- 
isted for a short time. But, in this country, with 
the exception of Sir John Sinclair's elaborate Code 
of Health , and one or two other publications of a 
late date, the subject has never been treated with 
any thing like the regard which it assuredly de»- 
eervesr In one point of view, indeed, the omission 
is not so extraordinary as it may at first sight ap- 
pear. The prominent aim of medicine being to 
discriminate and to cure disease, both the teacher 
and the student naturally fix upon that as their chief 



IV PREFACE. 

object ; and are consequently apt to overlook the 
indirect but substantial aid which an acquaintance 
with the laws of health is calculated to afford in re- 
storing the sick, as well as in preserving the healthy 
from disease. 

It is true, that almost every medical man, sooner 
' or later, works out this knowledge for himself ; but, 
in general, he attains it later than he ought to do, 
and seldom so completely as he would have done 
had it been made a part of his elementary education, 
to which he saw others attach importance. In my 
own instance, it was only when entering upon prac- 
tice that I had first occasion to feel and to observe 
the evils arising from the ignorance which prevails 
in society in regard to it. Impressed afterward 
more deeply than ever with the interest and utility of 
the study, I contributed two or three articles on the 
subject to one of our periodical journals, and re- 
solved to make them the basis, at some future time, 
of a more detailed and connected exposition. This 
I have now attempted ; and, if the result prove use- 
ful, in any degree, to the general reader or profes- 
sional student, my object will be attained. The 
volume being of a purely elementary character, and 
admitted truths of a useful kind being, in every in- 
stance, preferred to novelty or ingenious specula- 
tion, the experienced practitioner will meet with lit- 
tle to interest him in the perusal ; but for him it was 
never intended. 

There is a tendency in the minds of many, when 
a new subject is presented to them, to run away 
with a part of a proposition, or with an individual 



PREFACE. V 

illustration, and to condemn the principle to which it 
applies as unsound, because they happen to know 
facts which are at variance with the particular ex- 
ample brought forward. In this way, there is per- 
haps no one rule which I have advanced to which 
some individual case may not be plausibly opposed. 
But it does not necessarily follow that the principle 
or rule is thereby disproved. An example may be 
badly chosen, and yet the truth it is meant ta con- 
vey may be as much a truth as before. Instead, 
therefore, of at once condemning a proposition on 
account of a single apparent exception, it will be 
better to extend the inquiry, and discover whether 
any peculiarity of situation or constitution has inter- 
fered to modify the result, and to condemn only 
when evidence of inaccuracy is obtained. Thus, 
because some drunkards have enjoyed good health, 
and lived to an unusually old age, we are by no 
means entitled to infer that drinking was the cause 
of the good health, and that if we would all drink as 
freely, we should all live as long. An example of 
this kind, far from disproving the principle that ar- 
dent spirits are prejudicial to the human frame, only 
establishes the fact that individuals exist who, from 
some idiosyncrasy, are better able than others to re- 
sist their bad effects ; and, in like manner, when I 
state, as a general proposition, that severe muscular 
exertion is hurtful during rapid growth, I do not 
consider it as any argument against the fact to say, 
that A. B. underwent great exertion when growing 
without being injured by it. The general principle 
obviov sly remains unaffected by any such instances. 
A2 



VI PREFACE. 

Various repetitions occur in the course of the 
work, which to some may seem unnecessary, and 
for which I ought to solicit the indulgence of the 
reader. These have arisen chiefly from the inti- 
mate manner in which the different functions are 
connected with each other, rendering it impossible 
to explain one without constantly referring to the 
rest. Occasionally, also, the novelty and import- 
ance of the subject have led me to risk repetition, 
in order to ensure attention , but I trust that these 
faults, if felt as such, will be forgiven. 

Those who desire to obtain further information 
of a popular nature in regard to the structure of 
man, will find an excellent treatise on Animal 
Physiology, in four of the earlier numbers of the 
Library of Useful Knowledge. It is understood 
to be from the pen of an able physician in London, 
with whose sentiments on the subject now before us, 
as expressed in the following extract from his con- 
cluding page, I need hardly say I entirely concur : — 

" The obvious and peculiar advantages of this 
kind of knowledge are, that it would enable its 
possessor to take a more rational care of his health ; 
to perceive why certain circumstances are bene- 
ficial or injurious ; to understand, in some degree, 
the nature of disease, and the operation as well of 
the agents which produce it as of those which coun- 
teract it ; to observe the first beginnings of deranged 
function in his own person ; to give to his physician 
a more intelligible account of his train of morbid 
sensations as they arise ; and, above all, tc co- 
operate with him in removing the morbid sH'Je on 



PREFACE. VII 

which they depend, instead of defeating, as is now 
through gross ignorance constantly done, the best 
concerted plans for the renovation of health. It 
would likewise lay the foundation for the attainment 
of a more just, accurate, and practical knowledge 
of our intellectual and moral nature. There is a 
physiology of the mind as well as of the body ; both 
are so intimately united, that neither can be well 
understood without the study of the other ; and the 
physiology of man comprehends both. Were even 
what is already known of this science, and what 
might be easily communicated, made a part of gen- 
eral education, how many evils would be avoided, 
how much light would be let in upon the under- 
standing, and how many aids would be afforded to 
the acquisition of a sound body and a vigorous 
mind ; — pre-requisites more important than are com- 
monly supposed to the attainment of wisdom and the 
practice of virtue." 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Physiology, vegetable, comparative, and human — Animate and 
inanimate Bodies — Objects of Physiology — Usefulness of 
Physiological Knowledge — Illustrations — Evils of Ignorance 
—Error in separating Anatomy and Physiology from their 
practical Applications — Object of the present Publication 13 

CHAPTER II. 

The SJcin — Composed of three Layers — The Cuticle — Its Struc- 
ture and Uses — The mucous Coat — The Seat of Colour— The 
true Skin — Its Structure — The Seat of Perspiration — Its Na- 
ture — Consequences of suppressed Perspiration — Sympathy 
between the Skin and other Organs — The Skin a Regulator of 
Animal Heat — The Seat of Absorption — Touch and Sensation 
— Connexion between the Skin and Nervous System - 30 

CHAPTER III. 

Mortality in Infancy from Cold— Animal Heat lowest at that 
Age — Too little and too much Clothing equally bad — Rules 
for Dress — Advantages of Flannel, exemplified in H. M. S. 
Valorous — Ventilation of Beds and Clothing — Influence of 
Light — Importance of Ablution and Bathing— Cold, Tepid, 
and Warm Bath — Sponging with diluted Vinegar — Friction 
of the Skin — Vapour-bath and Warm Bath useful in prevent- 
ing and curing Nervous Diseases and Liability to Cold — Sail 
ing and Riding useful by acting on the Skin 62 

CHAPTER IV. 

Muscles — Their Structure, Attachments, and Conditions of Ac 
tion — Necessity of Arterial Blood and of Nervous Influence — 
Illustrations — Muscles act by alternate Contraction end Re- 
laxation — Fatigue consequent on continuing'the same Attitude 
explained — Injuries of Spine from Neglect of this Law, and 
from sedentary Occupations in School — The Mind ought to be 



10 CONTENTS. 

engaged in Exercise as well as the Body— Superiority of 
cheerful Play and amusing Games— A dull Walk the least 
useful Exercise — Influence of Mental Stimulus illustrated by 
Examples — Exercise to be propoi..oned to Strength — Laws 
of Exercise 88 

CHAPTER V. 

.Effects of Muscular Exercise on the principal Functions of the 
Body explained — Shampooing a Substitute foi Exercise — 
Evils of deficient Exercise — Best Time for taking Exercise — 
Alwavs to be taken in the open Air — Different Kinds- 
Walking — Riding — Dancing — Gymnastic— Fencing — Shut- 
tlecock— Reading aloud — Case illustrative of the Principles 
of Exercise — Involuntary Muscles 121 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Bones essential to Motion, and to the Security of the Vital 
Organs — The Skeleton — Bones are composed of Animal and 
of Earthy Matter— The Animal Part the Seat of their Vitality 
— The Proportions between these vary at different Periods of 
Life — Vessels, Nerves, Life, Growth, and Decay of Bones — 
Advantages of their Vitality and Insensibility — Their Adapta- 
tion to contained Parts — Conditions of Health — Necessity of 
Exercise 140 

CHAPTER VII. 

Respiration — Arteria? and Venous Blood — Nature of Respiration 
—Structure of the. Lungs — Conditions required for Healthy 
Respiration — Sound original Constitution — Influence of He 
reditary Predisposition — Of wholesome Food, and good Diges- 
tion — Of the free expansion of the L.ungs — Of exercise of the 
Muscles and Voice — Of Cheerfulness and Depression of Mind 
— Of Pure Air and Ventilation — Examples of the bad effects of 
Vitiated Air — Respiration the source of Animal Heat — Causes 
of deficient Generation of Heat — Removal of such Causes — 
Direct and Indirect Exercise of the Lungs — Beneficial Effects 
of, and Rules for, Exercise — Precautions to be observed in 
Diseases of the Lungs, and in Persons predisposed to Con- 
sumption 164 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Nervous System — Structure of the Brain — Its Functions- 
Connexion between the Mind and Brain — Conditions of 
Health in the Biain— Hereditary Predisposition— Influence 



CONTENTS. 1 1 

©f the Blood on the Brain — Influence of Exercise on the 
Brain — Effects of insufficient Exercise — Effects of excessive 
Exercise at different Ages — Case of Sir H. Davy — Rules for 
the proper Exercise of the Brain — Best Time for Mental 
Exertion — Regularity essential — Repetition — Every Mental 
Power to be exercised directly on its own Objects — Illustra- 
tions — Influence of the Nervous System on the general 
Health— Examples 206 

CHAPTER IX. 

pauses of Bad Health — Not always the Result of moral or im- 
moral Conduct — Nor of Accident — But of the Infringement of 
the Laws of Organization — Proofs from past History — Dimin- 
ished Mortality from Increase of Knowledge, and better fulfil- 
ment of the Conditions of Health — The Expeditions of Anson 
and Cook contrasted — Gratifying Results of the Sanatory Ar- 
rangements of Ross, Parry, and Franklin — Pulmonary Dis- 
eases in the Channel Fleet, from Ignorance of Physiology — 
Rates of Mortality in different Ages and Countries — Causes 
of late Improvements — Condition of Wealthier and Poorer 
Classes compared — Good done by the Apprehension of Chol- 
era — Influence of Habit — Neglect of Organic Ltws in Re- 
cruiting Service-— Examples — Conclusion - . - 264 



THE 



PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Physiology, vegetable, comparative, and human — Animate an 
inanimate Bodies — Objects of Physiology — Usefulness of 
Physiological Knowledge — Illustrations — Evils of Ignorance 
—Error in separating Anatomy and Physiology from their 
practical Applications — Object of the present Publication. 

Physiology, from $vsh nature, and )«>yos discourse, 
signifies literally a discourse about natural powers, 
but, as now used, it applies exclusively to the doc- 
trine of the uses or functions of the different con- 
stituent parts of beings endowed with the principle 
of life. As applied to the vegetable kingdom, it is 
called Vegetable Physiology ; to the lower animals, 
Comparative Physiology ; and to man, Human Phy- 
siology. In all these instances, however, the objects 
of physiology are the same, viz. the exposition of 
the mechanism and laws by which the various func- 
tions which characterize living bodies are carried 
on, so as to fit each individual for the particular 
sphere in which the Creator intended it to exist. 
* The grand mark of distinction between animate 
and inanimate bodies is to be found in the different 
relations in which they stand to the ordinary laws 
of the material world. Inanimate or unorganized 
bodies have no internal power of action, and of 
themselves can effect no change. Possessed of 
B 



14 ANIMATE AND INANIMATE BODIES. 

certain fixed and invariable properties, they stand 
uniformly in the same relation to each other, and 
act invariably according to the same general laws, so 
that what is once ascertained of them can be pre- 
dicted with certainty to hold true for ever after ; 
and, therefore, in conducting our investigations, we 
know that the same effects will always follow the 
same causes with mathematical precision. But 
when the same elementary material becomes part 
of a living body, this rule no longer holds : the laws 
of chymica 1 and physical action are greacl} modified, 
or, for a time, counteracted, and the now organized 
matter obeys the laws of vegetable or animal life, 
and is not again subjected to those of chymical 
action, either till eliminated from the body, or till 
life is extinct ; and, in point of fact, the putrefaction 
which instantly follows the extinction of the vital 
principle is neither more nor less than the ordinary 
laws of inanimate matter resuming their dominion 
when no longer opposed by a higher pcwer. 

An example or two will render the difference more 
apparent. All bodies gravitate towards the earth, 
according to a well-known and invariable law. But 
animals are able to resist this law, so far as to pre- 
serve an attitude at variance with its tendency, or 
even to rise, like the eagle, many thousand feet in 
the air in opposition to their natural weight ; but, 
on the extinction of life, they lose this power, and 
again become subject to the full influence of gravi- 
tation. In the same way, many animals preserve 
an elevated and steady temperature, whether ex- 
posed to severe cold or to excessive heat ; but when 
life ceases, rapidly assume that of the objects by 
which they are surrounded. A human being may, 
for instance, be exposed to the intensest cold of the 
Polar Regions without having his own internal tem- 
perature reduced by a single degree so long as life 
endures ; but from the moment he ceases to exist, 
his body begins to part with its heat, and ere long it 



OBJECTS OF PHYSIOLOGY. 15 

becomes frozen and stiff like the inanimate masses 
by which it is surrounded. 

Here, then, is a grand boundary-line dividing the 
organized from the inorganized, the animate from 
the inanimate body. Chymistry and natural phi- 
losophy investigate the laws and conditions which 
regulate the action and movements of inanimate or 
inorganized objects ; but, from what we have seen 
of the power of the vital principle in modifying 
these, it will be manifest that, however extensive 
and accurate our knowledge of the properties of the 
alementary materials of living bodies may be, con- 
sidered separately, we can thence infer nothing in 
regard to the qualities of the animal compound when 
endowed with life, but must resort to observation 
and study for the discovery of the conditions by 
which life is characterized, and under which it is car- 
ried on. 

Physiology, or the history of the functions which 
characterize living beings, is thus a subject of pecu- 
liar interest ; and human physiology, or that which 
is about to engage our attention, is as important in 
its practical consequences as it is attractive to 
rational curiosity. In its widest sense it compre- 
hends an exposition of the functions of the various 
organs of which the human frame is composed ; of 
the mechanism by which these are carried on ; of 
their mutual relations to each other; of the means 
of improving their development and action ; of 
the purposes to which they ought severally to be 
directed ; and of the manner in which exercise ought 
to be conducted, so as to secure for the organ the 
best health, and for the function the highest effi- 
ciency. A true system of physiology comes thus 
to be the proper basis, not only of a sound physical, 
but of a sound moral and intellectual education, and 
of a rational hygiene ; or, in other words, it is tho 
basis of every thing having for its object the 
physical and mental health and improvement of 



16 OBJECTS OF PHYSIOLOGY. 

man ; for, so long as life lasts, the mental and moral 
powers with which he is endowed manifest them- 
selves through the medium of organization, and no 
plan which he can devise for their cultivation, that 
is not in harmony with the laws which regulate that 
organization, can possibly be successful. 

But, besides the power of resisting the operation 
of the ordinary chymical and physical laws, living 
bodies are distinguished by other properties peculiar 
to themselves. Unlike inorganized matter, which 
exists in the same form from the beginning, bodies en- 
dowed with the principle of life derive their origin 
from previously existing living bodies of the same na- 
ture as themselves : these, in their turn, give birth to 
others, and in this way the succession is kept up. 
Unlike the inert material which retains its proper- 
ties unaltered throughout endless ages, the living 
body is constantly undergoing changes from the first 
to the last moment of its existence ; and these are 
exemplified, on the large scale, in the great stages 
of youth, maturity, old age, and death. Unlike 
inorganized matter, which neither grows nor de- 
cays, living bodie3 require a constant supply of 
nourishment to admit of their growth in youth, and 
to replace the worn-out particles which are regu- 
larly thrown off at every period of life ; and, unlike 
inanimate objects, the relations and properties of 
which never alter, living bodies cease at last to 
exist, and their component elements, deprived of the 
principle of life, again become subject to the ordi- 
nary laws of matter, and are speedily decomposed 
and scattered about as if life had never been. These 
properties, it maybe observed, are common to vege- 
table and animal life ; but animals possess others 
peculiar to themselves. Among the most remark- 
able of these are sensation, thought, voluntary 
motion, and the faculty of communicating to each 
other their own thoughts and feelings, through the 
medium of natural or artificial language. These 



USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 1? 

are great marks of distinction, and, considered in a 
general point of view, amply suffice to divide the 
two great classes of animated beings ; and while 
some animals exhibit individual powers in greater 
perfection, man stands far their superior, not only 
in combining in his own body all the senses and 
faculties possessed among them, but in being en- 
dowed with moral and intellectual powers which 
are denied to them, and which place him at once at 
the head of the living creation, and constitute him 
a moral, religious, intelligent, and responsible being. 

So numerous and important are the various organs 
of which the human frame is composed, and so 
closely are they linked with each other in their 
action, that, in treating of them, it is difficult, or 
rather impossible, to follow any arrangement which 
shall not involve considerable repetition. On the 
present occasion, however, a systematic mode of 
proceeding is not essential, my object being merely 
to communicate a general knowledge of a few of 
the more important functions, partly with a view to 
the direct practical purposes to which such informa- 
tion may be applied, and partly for the sake of rous- 
ing public attention to the necessity of including 
this branch of science in every plan of what is 
called a liberal education. 

Let it not be said that knowledge of this descrip- 
tion is superfluous to the unprofessional reader ; for 
society groans under the load of suffering inflicted 
by causes susceptible of removal, but left in opera- 
tion in consequence of our unacquaintance with our 
vjwn structure, and of the relations of the different 
parts of the system to each other and to external 
objects. Every medical man must have felt and 
lamented the ignorance so generally prevalent in 
regard to the simplest functions of the animal sys- 
tem, and the consequent absence of judicious co- 
operation of friends in the care and cure of the 
eick. From unacquaintance with the commonest 
B2 



18 USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 

facts in physiology, or incapability of appreciating 
their importance, men, of much good sense in every 
other respect, not only subject themselves unwit- 
tingly to the active causes of disease, but give their 
sanction to laws and practices destructive equally 
to life and to morality, which, if they saw them in 
their true light, they would shrink from counte- 
nancing" in the slightest degree. 

For proof of this 1 need only refer to the evidence 
on the Factories Regulation Bill, which lately occu- 
pied so much of public attention.* The law then 
in operation authorized the working of children be- 
tween the years of eight and sixteen, in the close, 
heated atmosphere of a cotton-mill, for twelve hours 
a day ; and, as a great boon, the period has been, 
with much difficulty, reduced from twelve to eight 
hours for the younger children. Had our legislators 
been instructed in anatomy and physiology so far 
as to obtain even the most general notion of the con- 
stitution of the human body, and had they followed 
without bias the conclusions to which such knowledge 
would have led every reflecting mind, they would 
never have sanctioned such a law as that which for- 
merly disgraced the statute-book, nor would they 
have shown any reluctance to modify its provisions 
when its unfitness was pointed out to them. Had 
such knowledge been familiar to their minds, and 
morality been their aim, I doubt whether, instead 
of objecting to the reduction when it was proposed, 
any one would have been found hardy enough to 
affirm that even the present amount of labour is not 
too much for ungrown children. It may be that the 
evidence in the printed report was partially got up ; 
but it contains a multitude of facts so entirely in 
accordance with the soundest and best understood 
principles in physiology, w T hich no counter-evidence 
can rebut, that one can only lament the ignorance 

• [In Great Britain.] 



USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE, 19 

which prevented many able and benevolent but pre- 
judiced men from perceiving its true character, and 
yielding at once to the imperious dictates of nature 
and of duty. That there were great difficulties in 
the way of every alteration is quite true ; but surely 
no question of mere gain to any or to every class 
ought to be allowed to stand for ever in the way, 
when the lives and happiness of multitudes of our 
fellow-creatures are at stake ; and unless we begin 
somewhere, how can any improvement be accom- 
plished ? 

Another instance of the dangers of ignorance 
lately presented itself. In che Edinburgh Advertiser 
of the 1st March, 1833, we are informed that " a dis- 
tressing occurrence was discovered on Wednesday 
forenoon, on board t\\e Magnus Troil, Shetland 
trader, Captain Ganson, lying at Leith. The master 
and mate, who are brothers, went as usual on Tues- 
day night to sleep in the cabin of the vessel, but not 
appearing at the justomary hour in the morning, the 
crew thought they had merely slept beyond their 
time. A little time having elapsed, they were re- 
peatedly Called, but no answer being returned, one 
of the men went into the cabin, where he found the 
two brothers almost dead through suffocation. It is 
thought that they had shut the companion and sky- 
lights so close, that they had during the night ex- 
hausted the whole of the vital air necessary for respira- 
tion contained in their confined situation. Medical 
aid was procured, and hopes are entertained of their 
recovery. Both were much respected." Captain 
Ganson, however, did not recover, but died convulsed 
on Thursday morning. 

Since the publication of the preceding statement, 
doubts have been entertained whether the catastro- 
phe resulted simply from confined air, or from the 
stove not having been extinguished, or from impure 
air proceeding from the bilge-water. The cause. 
however tn which it rr.av be ascribed is not of much 



20 USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 

consequence to our argument, for it is quite certain 
that had Captain Ganson and his brother possessed 
the slightest acquaintance with the nature of the at- 
mosphere, and the relation of its elements to the func- 
tion of respiration, neither of their lives would -ever 
have been lost in such a way- as that described. A 
constant supply of pure air is indispensable to the 
formation of proper blood in the lungs, and conse- 
quently to the preservation of life and the well-being 
of the whole body ; but formerly, w T hen this con- 
dition was as little known or regarded as it was by 
Captain Ganson, many persons were shut up to- 
gether in small ill-ventilated rooms in schools, jails, 
and hospitals, and the natural result was a degree 
of mortality from fevers and other diseases, which, 
now that the laws of respiration are better known 
and more attended to, is never heard of. 

From the same hurtful absence of knowledge, a 
law exists, or lately existed, in France, by which 
infants must be taken within a very short time after 
being born to the office of the Maire, if it is wished 
to have their births registered. But there is another 
and higher law, made by the Creator, with which 
this enactment is at variance ; and that law renders 
the infant incapable of bearing exposure to a low 
temperature without injury. The consequence is, 
that in winter, especially in places where the Maire 
resides at a distance, and where consequently there 
is much exposure, a greater mortality takes place 
than is observed among infants placed under more 
favourable circumstances. Had the nature of the 
living functions been generally understood by the 
framers of such a law, it is obvious that it could 
never have been enacted, for to have done so know- 
ingly would have been in substance to legalize in- 
fanticide. 

One additional example may be given. It is well 
understood among professional men, that in speak- 
ing singing, and playing on wind-instruments, the 



CSEFULtffiSS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 21 

lungs are called into play as powerfully as in running 
or any other species of severe muscular exercise. 
From not adverting to this fact, a strongly consti- 
tuted individual, who brought on spitting of blood 
by bodily labour to which ho had not been accus- 
tomed, conceived himself perfectly safe, and even 
cautious, when he gave up the spade, and confined 
himself to talking a great deal, which he did daily 
to numerous visiters in explanation of favourite 
views then occupying all his thoughts. The con- 
sequence was, that the medical treatment resorted 
to was without effect, and a fatal illness was brought 
on. When the action of the lungs was subsequently 
explained to this individual, he saw at once the 
error into which he had fallen, and lamented the 
ignorance which had led to it, but too late to derive 
any advantage from his knowledge. 

We are constantly meeting with anomalies in 
practical life, in the case of individuals little accus- 
tomed, when in health, to observe or reflect on the 
influence of external circumstances and modes of 
life in disturbing the action of the various animal 
functions, but at the same time easily and deeply 
impressed by all extraordinary occurrences affecting 
them. Thus, when any one is taken ill, his relatives 
or friends become extremely anxious to have his 
room properly ventilated ; his body-clothes fre- 
quently changed and carefully aired ; his food prop- 
erly regulated in quantity and quality ; his skin 
cleaned and refreshed ; his mind amused and tran- 
quillized ; his sleep sound and undisturbed ; and his 
body duly exercised ; — and they state as the reason 
for all this care, and most justly, that pure air, clean- 
liness, attention to diet, cheerfulness, regular ex- 
ercise, and sound sleep are all highly conducive to 
health And yet such is the inconsistency attendant 
on ignorance, that the patient is no sooner restored, 
than both he and his guardians are often found to 
become as careless and indifferent in regard to all 



22 USEFULNESS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE. 

the laws of health, as if these were entirely without 
influence, and their future breach or observance 
could in no way affect him ! Just as if it were not 
better by a rational exercise of judgment to preserve 
health when we have it, than first to lose it, and 
then pay the penalty in suffering and danger, as an 
indispensable preliminary to its subsequent resto- 
ration ! 

One cause of such anomalous conduct is the dan- 
gerous and prevalent fallacy of supposing, that be- 
cause glaring mischief does not instantly follow 
every breach of an organic law, no harm has been 
done. Thus, what is more common than to hear a 
dyspeptic invalid, who seeks to gratify his palate, 
say, that vegetables, for example, or pastry, or heavy 
puddings, do not disagree with him, as he ate them 
on such a day, and felt no inconvenience from them 1 
and the same in regard to late hours, heated rooms, 
insufficient clothing, and all other sources of bad 
health, every one of which will, in like manner, be 
defended by some patient or other, on the ground 
that he experienced no injury from them on a cer- 
tain specified occasion; while all will readily admit 
the abstract fact, that such things are, and must be, 
very hurtful to every one else. 

Happy would it often be for suffering man could 
he see beforehand the modicum of punishment 
which his multiplied aberrations from the laws of 
physiology are sure to bring upon him. But as, in 
the great majority of instances, the breach of the 
law is limited in extent, and becomes serious by the 
frequency of its repetition rather than by a single 
act ; so is the punishment gradual in its infliction, 
and slow in manifesting its accumulated effect ; and 
this very gradation, and the distance of time at which 
the full effect is produced, are the reasons why man, 
in his ignorance, so often fails to trace the connex- 
ion between his conduct in life and his broken 
health. But the connexion subsists although he 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 23 

does not regard it, and the accumulated conse- 
quences come upon him when he least expects 
them. 

Thus, pure air is essential to the full enjoyment 
of health ; and reason says, that every degree of 
vitiation must necessarily be proportionally hurtful, 
till we arrive at that degree at which, from its ex- 
cess, the continuance of life becomes impossible. 
When we state this fact to a delicately constituted 
female, who is fond of frequenting heated rooms, 
or crowded parties, theatres, or churches, and call 
her attention to the hurtful consequences which she 
must inflict on herself by inhaling the vitiated air 
of such assemblies, her answer invariably is, that 
the closeness and heat are very disagreeable, but 
that they rarely injure her : by which she can only 
mean, that a single exposure to them does not always 
cause an illness serious enough to send her to bed, 
or excite acute pain ; although both results are ad- 
mitted sometimes to have followed. An intelligent 
observer, however, has no difficulty in perceiving 
that they do hurt her, and that although the effect 
of each exposure to their influence is so gradual as 
not to arrest attention, it is not the less progressive 
and influential in producing and maintaining that 
general delicacy of health by which she is charac- 
terized, and from which no medical treatment can 
relieve her, so long as its active causes are left in 
operation. 

The debility so generally complained of in spring 
by invalids and persons of a delicate constitution, 
and which renders that season of the year so formi- 
dable in prospect, and in reality so fatal, seems to 
result more from the accumulated effects of the 
preceding winter months than from any thing di- 
rectly inherent in the season itself. At the com- 
mencement of winter, such persons feel compara- 
tively strong from the beneficial influence of expo- 
sure to the open air, light, and exercise, during the 



24 ILLUSTRATIONS, 

preceding months of summer and autumn. But in 
proportion as they are deprived of these advantages 
by the advance of winter, and are subjected to the 
evil influence of confinement to cjose rooms, defi- 
cient exercise, cold damp air, and deprivation of the 
stimulus of light, the stamina of the constitution 
become impaired, and debility and relaxation begin 
to be felt, and make progress from day to day, tiM 
on the arrival of spring they have reached thei"* 
maximum, and either give rise to positive disease 
or gradually disappear at the return of the invigo 
rating influence of longer and warmer days. Thii 
principle, however, will not apply where pulmonary 
or other disease pre-exists ; for in such cases, the 
east winds prevalent in spring are directly injurious. 

If the above view be correct, it is obvious that the 
hurtful cause is not, as is commonly supposed, so 
much any positive quality of spring as the accumulated 
mass of the winter influences then reaching their 
maximum ; and this is not perceived, only because 
the operation of the cause from day to day, although 
perfectly real, is too small to attract notice, while 
the aggregate of the many days composing wintei 
is striking enough. The fact that those who are 
sufficiently robust to undergo the necessary expo- 
sure in winter suffer much less in spring, seems to 
corroborate the above explanation. 

We must not suppose, then, that because a single 
excess of any kind does not produce a direct attack 
of disease, it is, therefore, necessarily harmless; 
for it is only when the noxious agent is very pow- 
erful indeed that its deleterious influence on the 
system becomes instantly sensible. In the great 
majority of situations to which man is exposed in 
social life, it is the continued or the reiterated appli- 
cation of less powerful causes which gradually, and 
often imperceptibly, unless to the vigilant eye, 
effects the change, and ruins the constitution before 
danger is dreamed of And yet this great truth is 



EVILS OF IGNORANCE. 25 

so little known, that, if no glaring mischief has fol- 
lowed any particular practice, within at most twenty- 
four hours, nine out of ten individuals will be found 
to have come to the conclusion that it is perfectly 
harmless, even where it is capable of demonstration 
that the reverse is the fact. 

It is this apparent but unreal separation of the 
effect from its cause which has given rise to tha 
variety of opinions entertained in regard to the 
qualities of the same agents, and which has, per- 
haps, tended more than any thing else to discourage 
rational regard to the means of preserving health ; 
and yet this very variety is a proof at once of the 
absence of sound views of our own nature, and of 
the urgent necessity of possessing them. In soci- 
ety, accordingly, nothing is more common than to 
hear the most opposite opinions expressed in regard 
to the evils or advantages of particular kinds of 
clothing, food, and exercise. One person will affirm 
with perfect sincerity that flannel is pernicious, be- 
cause it irritates the skin, and uniformly causes an 
eruption over the whole body; and that linen or 
cotton is an excellent article of dress, because it 
produces no such consequences. Another will tell 
you with equal truth that flannel is a capital thing, 
because it is pleasant to the feeling, and affords 
protection from cold and rheumatism, which linen 
does not. One will affirm that a long walk or vio- 
lent muscular exercise is an excellent tonic, because 
it gives a keen appetite, and a vivacity and alertness 
which are delightful. But another will declare that 
a long walk or severe exercise is exceedingly inju- 
rious and debilitating, because it destroys his appe- 
tite, and unfits him for exertion of mind or body, 
^nd always gives him headache. One will, in like 
manner, praise vegetables as the best diet, and 
another animal food as infinitely superior, and so on 
through the whole range of physical objects which 
act upon the human frame, and the natural conse* 
O 



26 EVILS OF IGNORANCE. 

quence of these apparent anomalies and contradio 
tions is, that when in health, we come practically to 
look upon the effects of air, food, exercise, and dress 
as very much matters of chance, subject to no fixed 
rule, and therefore little wortl attending to, except 
when carried to pnlpable extremes, or in the cure of 
disease ; and in this way, man, instead of being able 
to protect his children by the results of his own 
experience in his journey through life, goes on from 
generation to generation, groping a little, then see- 
ing a little, and then groping again, till he arrives, 
often prematurely, at the end of his existence, when 
he stumbles into his grave, leaving his posterity to 
pass unaided through the same series f experiments, 
and arrive at the same termination as himself. 

This unnatural result must arise either from the 
laws which regulate the animal functions and th3 
operations of external objects being variable and 
ever changing, or from the conditions of the living 
body on which they act being different in different 
persons, or in the same person at different ages or 
seasons ; and it is not difficult to determine to which 
of these it is to be ascribed. It cannot be to the 
first, for the laws of nature are invariable and un- 
bending. The food which to-day nourishes and 
sustains the * body, and which to-morrow, when 
sickness is present, raises the pulse and excites the 
heart to febrile action, has not altered its qualities 
or changed its relation to the healthy body. It is 
the state of the body that has changed and caused 
the apparent discrepancy of effect. In judging, 
therefore, of the propriety, advantages, or evils of 
exercise, food, and clothing, we must take into con- 
sideration, not only the kind of exercise, the kind of 
food, and the kind of clothing, but also the age, 
health, and kind of constitution of the individual who 
uses them, and adapt each to the degree in which it 
is required ; and then we may rest assured that 
many of our difficulties will vanish, and certainty 
and consistency come proportional!}' into view. 



ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 27 

In cultivating, and especially in teaching-, medical 
science, the different branches of which it is com- 
posed are habitually too much dissevered from each 
other, and from the practical consequences to which 
they lead. The anatomist teaches structure, and 
structure only, and refers to the physiologist for an 
account of the uses to which it is subservient. Tho 
physiologist, on the other hand, expounds functions, 
but scarcely touches upon the instruments by which 
they are executed. The consequence is, that the 
student often becomes disgusted with what he con- 
siders the dry details of anatomical structure, when 
perhaps nothing would interest him more deeply 
were the purposes which they fulfil in the animal 
economy taught to him at the same time. Many, 
in like manner, fail to take any pleasure in the study 
of physiology, who would be truly delighted to hear 
the truths of which it treats expounded more gene- 
rally in connexion with peculiarities of structure, 
and with more frequent reference to their practical 
applications. The anatomist and physiologist err, 
in short, in limiting themselves too exclusively to 
the objects of their respective departments, and 
devoting too little attention to the relations which 
these bear to each other and to the great unit, — the 
living being, of which they form a part. 

The result of this system is, that the young prac- 
titioner is educated without having made himself 
sufficiently familiar with the conditions on which 
the healthy action of the animal economy depends, 
or having even rightly appreciated the impor f ancc 
of such knowledge : and that, consequently, in com- 
mon with his patient, he sometimes unwittingly 
allows the operation of morbid causes to go on 
without interference, where, by a timely warning on 
his part, serious illness might have been averted ; 
or unconsciously permits the gradual ripening of 
hereditary tendencies into active disease, which 
rational precautions, early resorted to, might have 



28 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

kept in subjection throughout a long period of ex- 
istence. 

The general diffusion of a knowledge of physiol- 
ogy among the intelligent classes of society will be 
attended with this great advantage, that more atten- 
tion will be paid to the preservation of health and 
the prevention of disease than is at present practica- 
ble. The medical man will then be able to advise 
with increased effect, because he will be propor- 
tionally well understood. It is a very different 
thing to comply blindly with the directions which 
come to us simply on the authority of a man like 
ourselves, and to comply intelligently with those 
which claim our obedience on the authority of the 
Creator. 

It cannot be too constantly kept in view by medi- 
cal men, that their true province is to preserve as 
well as restore the health of those who intrust 
themselves and their families to their care ; and that 
it behooves them to turn their knowledge to account, 
in giving the greatest degree of security to their 
employers which their circumstances and situation 
in life will admif of, as well as in prescribing for 
actual disease. The day is, perhaps, not very far 
distant, when, in consequence of the improvements 
both in professional and in general education now in 
progress, a degree of importance will become at- 
tached to this application of medical science, far 
surpassing what those who have not reflected on the 
subject will be able to imagine as justly belonging 
to it, but by no means exceeding that which it trul> 
deserves. 

Some professional men are of opinion, that it is 
best, in all cases, to leave the patient in ignorance 
of his own structure and functions, and to assign no 
reasons for any thing recommended ; while others 
maintain, that advice is never so willingly attended 
to as when the reason of th* patient is addressed 
and a general explanation of the case given, so far 



OBJECT IN VIEW. 29 

as it can be easily understood. There are some per- 
sons, indeed, who prefer being simply told what 
they are to do, and are more manageable when dic- 
tated to than reasoned with ; and there are also 
many things in practice for which it would be 
puzzling to assign a valid reason, but, generally 
speaking, those whose reason is enlightened will 
be found to co-operate more effectually in the mea- 
sures required for their recovery than those who 
are left in the dark. 

In acute diseases, of course, explanation of any 
kind is often precluded. Here the professional man 
must act, and act with decision. But the great 
majority of ailments are of a chronic character, in 
the cure of which the steady co-operation of the 
patient is almost indispensable. And even when 
the malady is acute, a patient will submit to severe 
measures much more readily when ordered by an 
adviser who has been in the habit of addressing his 
reason when opportunity occurred, than when pre- 
scribed by one who has adopted an opposite course. 

My object, accordingly, in submitting the follow- 
ing pages to the public, is not to supersede the 
physician, by making " every man his own doctor," 
or by recommending the general perusal of profes- 
sional treatises, for both practices induce many 
more ailments than they cure ; but simply to assist 
in diffusing such a general acquaintance with the 
structure and functions of the human body, as will 
enable individuals to adopt the best means for de- 
veloping their mental and bodily powers ; to pro- 
tect themselves from the more common causes of 
disease, and to co-operate with effect in the re- 
covery of themselves or their friends when sick. 
In endeavouring partially to fulfil this object, I 
have the general reader alone in view, and do not 
pretend to offer anything new to the profession, for 
the subjects treated of mus*t be familiar to every 
practitioner. At the same time, I am not without 
C3 



30 THE SKIN. 

hope that the method followed of connecting details 
with practical applications may be found useful to 
the student, and help to direct him in his future in- 
quiries. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Skin — Composed of three Layers — The Cuticle — Its Struc 
ture and Uses — The mucous Coat — The Seat of Colour— The 
true Skin — Its Structure — The Seat of Perspiration — Its Na- 
ture — Consequences of suppressed Perspiration — Sympathy 
between the Skin and otfrer Organs — The Skin a Regulator of 
Animal Heat — The Seat of Absorption — Touch and Sensation 
— Connextion between the Skin and Nervous System. 

In selecting- the subjects of the following essays, 
I shall be guided partly by the intrinsic importance 
of the functions of which they treat to the well-being 
of the animal economy ; and partly by the compara- 
tive ignorance which prevails in regard to them. 
Hitherto the digestive functions have formed the 
most prominent topic of popular disquisition, and a 
great mass of information has, from time to time, 
been laid before the public, with a view to induce 
greater attention to the regulation of diet and regi- 
men; and the action of digestive order in deranging 
the general health and modifying the progress of 
disease has also been sedulously pointed out. But 
there are other organs and functions, of nearly 
equal interest, which have been much less attended 
to than they deserve, and with which the general 
reader is very little familiar. Among these the 
skin, the muscles, the bones, the lungs, and the 
nervous system may be mentioned as most worthy 
of notice, and I shall accordingly endeavour to give 
such an account of them in succession as will be 



STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN. 31 

both intelligible and of direct practical utility to 
every one. I shall commence with an explanation 
of the structure and functions of the skin. 

The skin is that membranous covering which is 
spread over the whole surface of the body, and 
which serves to bind together, and to protect from 
injury, the subjacent and more delicate textures. In 
different animals, and at different parts of the body 
it assumes different appearances. It is smooth, soft, 
and delicate in youth, and in females ; firmer and 
more resisting in middle age, and in males ; flabby and 
wrinkled in old age, and after disease ; puckered or 
disposed in folds in places that admit of extensive 
flexion, as over the finger-joints, and in the palm of 
the hand; and thick and horny where it is subjected 
to the influence of pressure, as in the soles of the 
feet. 

The structure of the skin, like that of every other 
part of the animal frame, displays the most striking 
proofs of the transcendent wisdom and beneficence 
of its great Creator. Though simple in appearance 
and in design, it is a compound of many elements, 
and the seat of as great a variety of functions. It is 
composed of three layers of membrane, viz. the thin 
scarf-skin or cuticle, the mucous coat, and the thick 
true skin, as it is called, which immediately encom- 
passes the body. These distinctions should be kept 
in view, for, as it is a general law of the animal 
economy that every part has a use or function 
peculiar to itself, the various uses of the compound 
can be understood only by attending to those of the 
simple elements. 

The epidermis, cuticle, or scarf-skin, is the outer- 
most of the three layers, and is that which is raised 
in blisters. It is a thin continuous and insensible 
membrane, has no perceptible blood-vessels or nerves, 
and consequently neither bleeds nor feels pain when 
cut or abraded. Being homogeneous in structure, 



32 STRUCTURE OF THE CUTICLE. 

jt is supposed by many to be merely an exudation 
of albuminous mucus ; and although depressions are 
obvious on its surface, and exhalation and absorp- 
tion are proved to be carried on through its sub- 
stance, it is still in dispute whether it be actually 
porous or not. Probability is in favour of the affirm- 
ative, and the circumstance of the pores not being 
visible is no proof to the contrary, for the cuticle is 
so elastic that it may be perforated by a needle, 
and yet the hole not be discernible even under the 
microscope. The question is, however, one of li* ;le 
moment, provided it be remembered that its text re, 
whether perforated or not, is such as to admit of ex- 
halation and absorption taking place througb its sub- 
stance. 

The structure of the cuticle is in admirable har- 
mony with its uses. Placed as an insensible inter- 
medium between external objects and the delicate 
nervous expansion on the surface of the subjacent 
true skin, it serves as a physical defence against 
friction ; and while, by impeding evaporation, it 
preserves the true skin in that soft and moist state 
which is essential to its utility, it also, by impeding 
absorption, enables man to expose himself without 
injury to the action of numerous agents, which, but 
for its protection, would immediately be absorbed, 
and cause the speedy destruction of health and life. 
This is remarkably exemplified in several trades, 
where the workman is unavoidably exposed to an 
atmosphere loaded with metallic and poisonous 
vapours, or obliged to handle poisonous substances, 
and where, without the obstruction of the cuticle, 
the evil to which he is subjected would be aggra- 
vated a hundred fold. Being destitute of nerves, 
the cuticle is not hurt by the direct contact of ex- 
ternal bodies, and being very thin, it blunts without 
impairing the distinctness of the impression made 
on the nerves of sensation. The necessity of this 
latter provision becomes very ft bv>ous when the 



USES OF THE CUTICLE. 33 

cuticle is abraded or removed by vesication. The 
surface below is then found to be too tender and 
irritable for the exercise of touch, and conveys to 
the mind scarcely any other sensation than that of 
pain. For the same reason, those parts of the skin 
which are most exposed to pressure and friction, 
such as the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, 
are provided with a thicker cuticle to defend them 
from injury. 

The greater thickness of the cuticle in such situa- 
tions is manifestly the intentional work of the Cre- 
ator, for it is perceptible even at birth, before use 
can have exercised any influence. Indeed, were 
the tender skin not so protected, every violent con- 
. traction of the hand upon a rough and hard surface, 
and every step made on uneven ground, would cause 
pain, and disable us for exertion. 

By another beneficent provision, calculated to af- 
ford increased protection according to the necessi- 
ties of the individual, it happens that, when a part is 
much used, the cuticle covering it becomes thicker 
and thicker within certain limits, till in extreme 
cases it becomes as thick, hard, and resisting as 
horn. It is this thickening of the epidermis on the 
lady's finger that alone enables her to wield with 
impunity that important instrument the needle. 
And it is the same thickening that fits the black- 
smith and the mason, the stone-breaker and the 
boatman, to ply their trades, without that painful 
blistering which the young apprentice or unaccus- 
tomed labourer so regularly undergoes, and which 
must have continued to recur for ever, had the cuti- 
cle been organized with blood-vessels and nerves, or 
not subjected to this law of becoming thicker wher- 
ever increased protection is required. 

Another modification of the cuticle to suit a modi- 
fication of circumstances is that observed in the 
nails. These belong to the scarf-skin, and separate 
with it ; and, like it, they have neither blood-vessels 



34 STRUCTURE AND ITSES OP THE MUCOUS COAT. 

nor nerves, and may be cut or bruised without pain. 
When the hand or foot is macerated in water, the 
nails and the cuticle show their identity of organ- 
ization, by separating together from the dermis or 
true skin below. The nails, like the cuticle, serve 
chiefly to protect the subjacent parts from injury; 
and, accordingly, in those lower animals whose 
manner of life subjects their feet to continual pres- 
sure, and requires no nice exercise of touch, Nature 
has provided homy and resisting hoofs for their pro 
tection, instead of a merely thickened epidermis. 

To produce thickening c c the cuticle, exercise 
must be gradual, and not too severe. If, for ex- 
ample, a person takes a very long walk, rows a boat, 
or makes use of a heavy hammer for a few hours, 
without having been accustomed to such an effort, 
there is no time for the cuticle to thicken, and de- 
fend itself from the unusual friction. The parts 
below, being inadequately protected, become irri- 
tated and inflamed, and throw out a quantity of 
watery fluid or serum on their surface, which raises 
up the cuticle in blisters, and by making it painful 
to continue the pressure, obliges the person to de- 
sist from an exercise which, if continued, would 
evidently soon alter the structure of the sentient 
nervous filaments, and for ever unfit them for theiy 
proper uses : so that even in this result beneficence 
and wisdom are prominently displayed. 

Immediately beneath the scarf-skin, and between 
it and the true skin, is the mucous coat, reie mucosum, 
or mucous network, which is remarkable chiefly as 
being the seat of the colouring matter of the skin. 
It is seen with difficulty on dissection except in 
Negroes, in whom it is thick. It is exceedingly 
attenuated in albinos, and is in fact thick in propor- 
tion to the depth of colour. It is destitute of blood- 
vessels and nerves, but, like the epidermis, is per- 
meable by other bodies. The colouring matter is 
said to be the same as that of the blood ; Davy and 
Blumenbach, however, regard it as carbon. 



STRUCTURE OF THE TRUE SKIN. 35 

From all that is known regarding the mucous coat, 
it may be viewed generally as merely a thin soft 
covering, placed between the outer and the inner 
skin, to protect the nerves and vessels of the latter 
and give them their requisite softness and pliancy. 
Being of a dark colour in the Negro, it has been 
supposed to diminish the heating influence of the 
sun's rays in tropical climates by the higher radia- 
ting power which is possessed by a black than by a 
light surface ; but there is reason to doubt the 
? undaess of the theory at least, for black is well 
known to excel in absorbing, as well as in radiating, 
heat ; and late experiments on the coast of Africa 
seem to show, that the temperature of the Negro 
is actually about two degrees higher than that of 
the European under the same circumstances. 

The mucous coat is the seat of the beautiful and 
variegated colouring observed in the skins of many 
fishes and other animals, in which it has often a high 
and almost metallic splendour. 

The third or inmost layer, called the true skin, der- 
mis, or corion, constitutes the chief thickness of the 
skin, and is by far the most important of the three, 
both in structure and functions. Unlike the cuticle 
and mucous coat, which are homogeneous in their 
whole extent, and apparently without organization, 
the true skin, or simply, as we shall call it for 
brevity's sake, the skin, is very delicately organized, 
and endowed with the principle of life in a very high 
degree. Not only is it the beautiful and efficacious 
protector of the subjacent structures, but it is the 
seat of sensation and of touch, and the instrument 
of a very important exhalation, viz. perspiration, the 
right condition or disturbance of which is a most 
powerful agent in the preservation or subversion of 
the general health. The dermis is a dense, firm, and 
resistant tissue, possessed of great extensibility and 
elasticity, and of a colour more or less red in pro- 
portion to the quantity of blood it receives and con- 



36 STRUCTURE OF THE TRUE SKIN. 

tains. Its looser internal surface, which is united 
to the cellular membrane in which the fat is de- 
posited, presents a great number of cells or cavities, 
which penetrate obliquely into the substance, and 
towards the external surface, of the skin, and also 
contain fatty matter. These areolae or cells are 
larger on some parts of the body than on others : 
they are very small on the back of the hand and 
foot, the forehead, and other places where fat is 
never deposited and the skin is very thin ; while 
they are large in the palm of the hand and sole of 
the foot, where the skin is consequently thicker and 
fat abounds. These cells are traversed by innumer- 
able blood-vessels and filaments of nerves, which 
pass through to be ramified on the outer surface of 
the skin, where they show themselves in the form 
of numerous small papillae or points, which are very 
visible on the surface of the tongue, and on the 
fingers and palm of the hand. These papillae con- 
stitute the true organs of touch and sensation, and 
are therefore most thickly planted where these 
senses are most acute. 

The true skin is so abundantly supplied with blood 
and nervous power, that, for practical purposes, it 
may almost be regarded as composed of vessels and 
nerves alone ; and it is important to notice this fact. 
The universal and equal redness of the skin in blush- 
ing is itself a proof of great vascularity ; but a still 
stronger consists in our being unable to direct the 
point of the finest needle into any spot without 
puncturing a vessel and drawing blood. The same 
test proves the equal abundance of nervous filaments 
in the skin, for not a point can be punctured without 
transfixing a nerve and causing pain ; and it is well 
known, that in surgical operations and accidental 
wounds, the chief pain is always in the skin, be- 
cause it is profusely supplied with nerves on pur- 
pose to serve as the instrument of feeling. From 
these examples, the skin may be truly considered as 



USES OF THE TRUE SKIN. 3? 

a network of blood-vessels and nerves of the finest 
conceivable texture ; and, taking the vast extent of 
its whole surface (estimated to exceed in a man of 
average size 2500 square inches) into account, we 
can easily understand how these minute ramifi- 
cations may really constitute a larger mass of ner- 
vous matter than is contained in the original trunks 
of the nerves from which they are incorrectly said 
to arise, and also how so large a proportion of the 
whole blood may be circulating through the skin at 
one time. 

To understand the important purposes of the true 
skin, we must distinguish between its constituent 
parts, and consider it, in virtue of each of them, — 
1st, As an exhalant of waste matter from the sys- 
tem ; 2d, As a joint regulator of the heat of the 
body ; 3d, As an agent of absorption ; and, 4th, As 
the seat of sensation and touch. 

Besides performing the mechanical office of a 
shield to the parts beneath, the skin is admirably 
fitted, by the great supply of blood which it receives, 
for its use as a secreting and excreting organ. The 
whole animal system is in a state of constant decay 
and renovation; and while the stomach and ali- 
mentary canal take in new materials, the skin forms 
one of the principal outlets or channels by which 
the old, altered, or useless particles are eliminated 
from the body. Every one knows that the skin 
perspires, and that checked perspiration is a power- 
ful cause of disease and of death ; but few have any 
just notion of the real extent and influence of this 
exhalation, such as we shall attempt to exhibit it. 
When the body is overheated by exercise in warm 
weather, a copious sweat soon breaks out, which, 
by carrying off the superfluous heat, produces an 
agreeable feeling of coolness and refreshment. This 
is the higher and more obvious degree of the function 
of exhalation ; but, in the ordinary state, the skin is 
D 



88 INSENSIBLE PERSPIRATION* 

constantly giving out a large quantity of waste ma- 
terials by what is called insensible perspiration, a 
process which is of great importance to the preser- 
vation of health, and which is called insensible, 
because the exhalation, being in the form of vapour, 
and carried off by the surrounding air, is invisible to 
the eye ; but its presence may often be made mani- 
fest even to sight by the ne?r approach of a dry cool 
mirror, on the surface of which it will soon be con- 
densed so as to become visible. 

Many attempts have been made to estimate accu- 
rately the amount of exhalation carried off through 
the skin ; but so many difficulties stand in the way 
of obtaining precise results, and the difference in 
different constitutions and even in the same person 
at different times is so great, that we must be satis- 
fied with an approximation to the truth. Sanctorius, 
who carefully weighed himself, his food, and his ex- 
cretions, in a balance, every day for thirty years, 
came to the conclusion that five out of every eight 
pounds of substance taken into the system passed out 
of it again by the skin, leaving only three to pass off by 
the bowels, the lungs^ and the kidneys. The cele- 
brated Lavoisier and M. Seguin afterward entered 
on the same field of inquiry, and with greater suc- 
cess, as they were the first to distinguish between 
the cutaneous and pulmonary exhalations. M. Se- 
guin shut himself up in a bag of glazed taffetas, which 
was tied over his head and provided with a hole, the 
edges of which were glued to his lips with a mixture 
of turpentine and pitch, so that the pulmonary ex- 
halation might be thrown outwards, and the cutane- 
ous alone be retained in the bag. He first weighed 
himself and the bag in a very nice balance, at the 
beginning of the experiment ; then at the end of it, 
when he had become lighter in proportion to the 
quantity of exhalation thrown out by the breathing ; 
and, lastly, he weighed himself out of the bag, to 
ascertain how much weight he had lost in all ; and 



INSENSIBLE PERSPIRATION. 39 

by subtracting the loss occasioned by the' lungs, the 
remainder of course exhibited the amount carried 
off by the skin. He attended minutely also to the 
collateral circumstances of diet, temperature, &c. ; 
and allowance being made for these, the results at 
which he arrived were the following : — 

The largest quantity of insensible perspiration 
from the lungs and skin together amounted to thirty- 
two grains per minute ; three ounces and a quarter 
per hour ; or five pounds per day. Of this the cu- 
taneous constituted two-thirds, or sixty ounces in 
twenty-four hours. The smallest quantity observed 
amounted to eleven grains per minute, or one pound 
eleven and a half ounces in twenty-four hours, of 
which the skin furnished about twenty ounces. The 
medium or average amount was eighteen grains a 
minute, of which eleven were from the skin, making 
in twenty-four hours about thirty-three ounces. When 
the extent of surface whieh the skin presents is con- 
sidered, these results do not seem extravagant. But 
even admitting that there may be some unperceived 
source of fallacy in the experiments, and that the 
quantity is not so great as is here stated, still, after 
making every allowance, enough remains to demon- 
strate that exhalation is a very important function 
of the skin. And although the precise amount of 
perspiration may be disputed, still the greater num- 
ber of observers agree that the cutaneous exhala- 
tion is more abundant than the united excretions 
of both bowels and kidneys ; and that, according as 
the weather becomes warmer or colder, the skin 
and kidneys alternate in the proportions of work 
which they severally perform ; most passing off by 
the skin in warm weather, and by the kidneys in 
cold, and vice versa. The quantity exhaled increases 
after meals, during sleep, in dry warm weather, and 
by friction or whatever stimulates the skin ; and di- 
minishes when digestion is impaired, and in a moist 
atmosphere 



40 SENSIBLE PERSPIRATION. 

What we have considered relates only to the in- 
sensible perspiration. That which is caused by 
great heat or severe exercise is evolved in much 
greater quantity ; and by accumulation at the sur- 
face, it becomes visible, and forms sweat. In this 
way, a robust man may lose two or three pounds' 
weight in the course of one hour's severe exertion ; 
and if this be suddenly checked, the consequences 
in certain states of the system are often of the most 
serious description. When the surface of the body 
is chilled by cold, the blood-vesesls of the skin be- 
come contracted in their diameter, and hinder the 
free entrance of the red particles of the blood, which 
are therefore of necessity collected and retained in 
greater quantity in the internal organs, where the 
heat varies very little. The skin consequently be- 
comes pale, and its papillae contract, forming by 
their erection what is called the goose's skin. 
In this state it becomes less fit for its uses ; the 
sense of touch can no longer nicely discriminate the 
qualities of bodies, and a cut or bruise may be re- 
ceived with comparatively little pain. From the op- 
pression of too much blood, the internal organs, on 
the other hand, work heavily : the mental faculties 
are weakened, sleepiness is induced, respiration is 
oppressed, the circulation languishes, and digestion 
ceases ; and if the cold be very intense, the vital 
functions are at last extinguished without pain, and 
without a struggle. This is a picture of the ex- 
tremes ; but the same causes which in an aggravated 
form occasion death produce, when applied in a 
minor degree, effects equally certain, although not 
equally marked or speedy in their appearance. 

According to Thenard, the cutaneous exhalation 
is composed of a large quantity of water and a 
small portion of acetic acid, of muriates of soda and 
potass, of an earthy phosphate, a little oxide of iron, 
and some animal matter; but Berzelius considers 
the acid as lactic, and not the acetic. Some car- 



NATURE OF PERSPIRATION. 41 

bonic acid and oily matter also are excreted. It is 
probable, however, that the composition of the per- 
spiration varies both at different ages and on differ- 
ent parts of the skin, as is presumable from the pe- 
culiarity of odour which it exhales in some situa- 
tions. The armpits, the groins, the forehead, the 
hands, and the feet perspire most readily, in conse- 
quence of their receiving a proportionally larger 
supply of blood. Every thing tends to show that 
perspiration is a direct product of a vital process, 
and not a mere exudation of watery particles 
through the pores of the skin. 

Taking even the lowest estimate of Lavoisier, we 
find the skin endowed with the important charge 
of removing from the system about twenty ounces 
of waste matter every twenty- four hours ; and when 
we consider that the quantity not only is great, but 
is sent forth in so divided a state as to be invisible 
to the eye, and that the whole of it is given out by 
the very minute ramifications of the blood-vessels 
of the skin, we perceive at once why these are so 
extremely numerous that a pin's point cannot touch 
any spot without piercing them ; and we see an 
ample reason why checked perspiration should 
prove so detrimental to health, — because for every 
twenty-four hours during which such a state con- 
tinues we must either have twenty ounces of use- 
less and hurtful matter accumulating in the body, 
or have some of the other organs of excretion 
grievously overtasked, which obviously cannot 
happen without disturbing their regularity and well- 
being. People know the fact and wonder that it 
should be so, that cold applied to the skin, or con- 
tinued exposure in a cold day, often produces a 
bowel complaint, a severe cold in the chest, or in- 
flammation of some internal organ ; but were they 
taught, as they ought to be, the structure and uses 
of their own bodies, they would rather wonder that 
it did not always nroduce one of thy*c eft* ;ts. 
D'i 



42 RECIPROCAL ACTION BETWEEN THE SKIN 

In tracing the connexion between suppressed 
perspiration and the production of individual dis- 
eases, we shall find that those organs which possess 
some similarity of function sympathize most closely 
with each other. Thus the skin, the bowels, the 
iungs, the liver, and the kidneys sympathize readily, 
because they have all the common office cf throw- 
ing waste matter out of the system, each in a way 
peculiar to its own structure ; so that if the exhala- 
tion from the skin, for example, be stopped by long 
exposure to cold, the large quantity of waste which 
it was charged to excrete, and which in itself is 
hurtful to the system, will most probably be thrown 
upon one or other of the above-named organs, whose 
function will consequently become excited ; and if 
any of them, from constitutional or accidental causes, 
be already weaker than the rest, as often happens, 
its health will naturally be the first to suffer. In 
this way, the bowels become irritated in one indi- 
vidual, and occasion bowel complaint ; while in an- 
other it is the lungs which become affected, giving 
rise to catarrh or common cold, or perhaps even to 
nflammation. When, on the other hand, all these 
organs are in a state of vigorous health, a tempo- 
rary increase of function takes place in them, and 
relieves the system, without leading to any local 
disorder; and the skin itself speedily resumes its 
activity, and restores the balance between them. 

One of the most obvious illustrations of this re- 
ciprocity of action is afforded by any convivial com- 
pany seated in a warm room in a cold evening. 
The heat of the room, the food and wine, and the 
excitement of the moment, stimulate the skin, cause 
an afflux of blood to its surface, and increase in a 
high degree the flow of the insensible perspiration ; 
which thus, while the heat continues, carries off an 
undue share of the fluids of the body, and leaves the 
kidneys almost at rest. But the moment the com- 
pany goes into the cold external air, a sudden re- 



AND OTHER ORGANS. 43 

version of operations takes place ; the cold chills 
the surface, stops the perspiration, and directs the 
current of the blood towards the internal organs, 
which presently become excited, — and, under this 
excitation, the kidneys, for example, will in a few 
minutes secrete as much of their peculiar fluid as 
they did in as many of the preceding- hours. The 
reverse of this, again, is common in diseases ob- 
structing the secretion from the kidneys ; for the 
perspiration from the skin is then altered in quan- 
tity and quality, and acquires much of the peculiar 
smell of the urinary fluid. 

When the lungs are the weak parts, and their 
lining membrane is habitually relaxed, accompanied 
by an unusual amount of mucous secretion from its 
surface, cold applied to the skin throws the mass 
of the blood previously circulating there inward 
upon the lungs, and increases that secretion to a 
high degree. Were this secretion to accumulate, 
it would soon fill up the air-ceils of the lungs, and 
cause suffocation ; but to obviate this danger, the 
Creator has so constituted the lungs, that any for- 
eign body coming in contact with them excites the 
convulsive effort called coughing, by which a vio- 
lent and rapid expiration takes place, with a force 
sufficient to hurry the foreign body along with it, 
just as peas are discharged by boys with much 
force through short tubes by a sudden effort of 
blowing. Thus, a check given to perspiration, by 
diminishing the quantity of blood previously circu- 
lating on the surface, naturally leads very often to 
increased expectoration and cough, or, in other 
words, to common cold. 

The lungs excrete, as we shall afterward see, a 
large proportion of waste materials from the sys- 
tem : and the kidneys, the liver, and the bowels 
have in so far a similar office. In consequence of 
this alliance with the skin, these parts are more in- 
timately connected with each other in health} and 



44 RECIPROCAL ACTION BETWEEN THE SKIN 

diseased action than with other organs. But it is a 
general law, that wherever an organ is unusually 
delicate, it will be more easily affected by any cause 
of disease than those which are sound. So that, if 
the nervous system, for example, be weaker than 
other parts, a chill will be more likely to disturb its 
health than that of the lungs, which are supposed in 
this instance to be constitutionally stronger ; or, if 
the muscular and fibrous organizations be unusually 
susceptible of disturbance, either Horn previous ill- 
ness or from natural predisposition, they will be the 
first to suffer, and rheumatism will ensue ; and so 
on. And hence the utility to the physician of an 
intimate acquaintance with the previous habits and 
constitutions of his patients, and the advantage of 
adapting the remedies to the nature of the cause, 
when it can be discovered, as well as to the disease 
itself. A bowel complaint, for instance, may arise 
from over-eating as well as from a check to perspi- 
ration ; but although the thing to be cured is the 
same, the means of cure ought obviously to be dif- 
ferent. In the one instance, an emetic or laxative 
to carry off the offending cause, and in the other a 
diaphoretic to open the skin, will be the most ra- 
tional and efficacious remedies. Facts like this 
well expose the glaring ignorance and effrontery of 
the quack, who affirms that his one remedy will 
cure every form of disease. Were the public not 
equally ignorant with himself, their credulity would 
cease to afford to his presumption the rich field in 
which it now revels. 

In noticing this connexion between the suppres- 
sion of perspiration and the appearance of internal 
disease, I do not mean to affirm, that the effect is 
produced by the physical transference of the sup- 
pressed exhalation to the internal organ. In many 
instances, the chief impression seems to be made 
on the nervous system ; and the manner in which it 
gives rise to the resulting disease is often extremely 



AND OTHER ORGANS. 45 

obscure. Our knowledge of the animal functions is, 
indeed, still so imperfect, that we daily meet with 
many occurrences of which we can give no expla- 
nation. But it is nevertheless of high utility to 
make known the fact that a connexion does exist 
between two orders of phenomena, as it calls atten- 
tion to their more accurate observation, and leads 
to the adoption of useful practical rules, even when 
their mode of operation is not understood. No- 
thing, indeed, can be more delusive than the rash 
application of merely physical laws to the explana- 
tion of the phenomena of living beings. Vitality is 
a principle superior to, and in continual warfare 
with, the laws which regulate the actions of inani- 
mate bodies ; and it is only after life has become 
extinct that these laws regain the mastery, and lead 
to the rapid decomposition of the animal machine. 
In studying the functions of the human body, there- 
fore, we must be careful not to hurry to conclusions, 
before taking time to examine the influence of the 
vital principle in modifying the expected results. 

It is in consequence of the sympathy and reci- 
procity of action existing between the skin and the 
internal organs, that burns and even scalds of no 
very great extent prove fatal, by inducing internal, 
generally intestinal, inflammation. By disordering 
or disorganizing a large nervous and exhaling sur- 
face, an extensive burn causes not only a violent 
nervous commotion, but a continued partial sus- 
pension of an important excretion ; and when death 
ensues at some distance of time, it is almost always 
in consequence of inflammation being excited in the 
bowels or sympathizing organ. So intimate, in- 
deed, is this connexion, that some surgeons of great 
experience, such as Baron Dupuytren of the Hotel 
Dieu, while they point to internal inflammation as 
in such cases the general cause of death, doubt 
whether recovery ever takes place, when more than 
one -eighth of the surface of the body is severely 



46 THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT. 

burnt ; and whether this estimate be correc* or not 
the facts from which it is drawn clearly demon- 
strate the importance of the relation subsisting be- 
tween the skin and the other excreting organs. 

In some constitutions, a singular enough sym- 
pathy subsists between the skin and the bowels. 
Dr. A. T. Thomson, in his work on Materia Medica 
(p. 42), mentions, that he is acquainted with a cler- 
gyman who cannot bear the skin to be sponged with 
vinegar and water, or any diluted acid, without suf- 
fering spasm and violent griping of the bowels. 
The reverse operation of this sympathy is exem- 
plified in the frequent production of nettle-rush and 
other eruptions on the skin, by shell-fish and other 
substances taken into the stomach. Dr. Thomson 
tells us, that the late Dr. Gregory could not eat the 
smallest portion of the white of an egg, without ex- 
periencing an attack of an eruption like nettle-rush. 
According to the same author, even strawberries 
have been known to cause fainting, followed by a 
petechial efflorescence of the skin. 

We have seen that the insensible perspiration re- 
moves from the system, without trouble and without 
consciousness, a large quantity of useless materials, 
and at the same time keeps the skin soft and moist, 
and thereby fits it for the performance of its func- 
tions as the organ of an external sense. In addition to 
these purposes, the Creator has, in his omniscience 
and foresight, and with that regard to simplicity 
of means which betokens a profoundness of thought 
inconceivable to us, superadded another purpose 
scarcely less important, and whicu is in some degree 
implied in the former ; I mean the proper regulation 
of the bodily heat. It is well known, that in the 
polar regions and in the torrid zone, under every 
variety of circumstances, the human body retains 
nearly the same temperature, however different that 
of the air may be by which it is surrounded. This 
is a property peculiar to life, and, in consequence of 



THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT. 47 

it, even vegetables have a power of modifying their 
own temperature, though in a much more limited 
degree. Without this power of adaptation, it is ob- 
vious that man must have been chained for life to 
the climate which gave him birth, and even then 
have suffered constantly from the change of sea- 
sons ; whereas, by possessing it, he can enjoy life 
in a temperature sufficiently cold to freeze mercury, 
and is able, for a time, to sustain, unharmed, a heat 
more than sufficient to boil water, or even to bake 
meat. Witness the wintering of Captain Parry and 
his companions in the Polar Regions ; and the ex- 
periments of Blagden, Sir Joseph Banks, and others, 
who remained for many minutes in a room heated 
to 260°, or about 50° above the temperature of boil- 
ing water. The chief agents in this wonderful 
adaptation of man to his external situation are un- 
doubtedly the skin and the lungs, and in both the 
power is intimately connected with the condition of 
their respective exhalations : but it is of the skin 
alone, as an agent in reducing animal heat, that we 
have at present to speak. 

The sources of animal heat are not yet demon- 
strably ascertained ; but that it is constantly gene- 
rated and constantly expended has been long known ; 
and if any considerable disproportion occurs be- 
tween these processes, it is at the immediate risk of 
health. During repose, or passive exercise, the sur- 
plus heat is readily carried off by the insensible per- 
spiration from the lungs and skin, and by the contact 
of the colder air ; but when the amount of heat 
generated is increased, as during active exercise, an 
increased expenditure becomes immediately neces- 
sary : this is effected by the skin and lungs being 
excited to higher action ; by the latter sending out 
the respired air loaded with vapour, and the former 
exhaling its fluid so rapidly as to form sweat. Ac- 
cordingly, we find that in cold countries, and in frosty 
weather, the superabundant heat being rapidly car-* 



48 THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT. 

ried off by contact with a cooler air, the exhalation 
from the skin is reduced to a very moderate amount 
and that, in warm climates, where the heat is not 
carried off in this way, the surface is constantly be- 
dewed with perspiration, and a corresponding appe- 
tite exists for liquids by which the perspiration may 
be kept up to a sufficient degree. Every one must 
have experienced the grateful effects of this pro 
vision, in passing from the dry, restless, and burn 
ing heat, like that of fever, to the soft and pleasant 
coolness which follows the breaking out of the 
sweat. 

Attention to the order of events affords the requi- 
site knowledge of the means employed for carrying 
off the increased heat which is produced, when a 
person is exposed to a warm air and powerful sun, 
or engaged in severe exercise. At first the body is 
actually felt to be warmer, the skin becomes dry and 
hot, and the unpleasant sensation of heat is soon at 
its maximum. By-and-by, a slight moisture is per- 
ceived on the surface, followed by an immediate in- 
crease of comfort. In a short time afterward, this 
moisture passes into free and copious perspiration ; 
and if the heat or exertion be still kept up, the sweat 
becomes profuse, and drops from the body, or wets 
the clothes which envelop it. A decrease of ani- 
mal heat unavoidably accompanies this, because, 
independently of any vital action contributing to 
this effect, as is most probable, the mere physical 
evaporation of so much fluid is itself sufficient to 
carry off a large quantity of caloric. The curious 
experiments of Edwards tend to show that evapora- 
tion is really the only means required for reducing 
animal heat to its proper degree ; but the results 
obtained by him require to be confirmed,, and the 
experiments varied and carried farther, before the 
inquiry can be considered as completed. The saga- 
city of Franklin led him to the first discovery of the 
use of perspiration in reducing the heat of the body, 



THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIM/VL HEAT. 49 

and to point out the analogy subsisting between this 
process and that of the evaporation of water from 
a rough porous surface, so constantly resorted to in 
the East and West Indies, and other warm countries, 
as an efficacious means of reducing the temperature 
of the air in rooms, and of wine and other drinks, 
much below that of the surrounding atmosphere. 
The quantity of fluid evaporated from the skin during 
profuse sweat so far exceeds that given out during 
the highest insensible perspiration, that two pounds 
in weight have been lost by this means in a couple 
of hours, — an amount evidently sufficient to carry 
off the largest quantity of superfluous animal heat 
which can ever be present. In the performance of 
this function the skin is, indeed, assisted by the ex- 
halation from the lungs ; but as both act on the same 
principle, the explanation is not affected by this cir- 
cumstance. 

Bearing in mind the preceding explanation of the 
functions of the skin, the following remarks from 
Dr. Thomson's work* will be read with interest. 
" Dr. Davy, in his Travels in Ceylon, states, from 
his personal observation, that, on first landing in a 
tropical climate, the standard heat of the body of a 
European is raised two or three degrees, and febrile 
symptoms occur, which require temperance, the 
avoiding every cause of excitement of the vascular 
system, and the use of aperient medicines. All au- 
thors, and indeed every observing person who has 
visited the torrid zone, agree that with the languor and 
exhaustion resulting from the high temperature of 
the atmosphere, there is a greatly increased mobility 
of the nervous system. The action of the cutaneous 
vessels amounts to disease, and produces that ecze- 
matous or vesicular eruption of the skin, known 
by the name of prickly heat, which occurs in Eu- 
ropeans who visit the West Indies, on their first 

• Page 66. 
K 



50 THE SKIN A REGULATOR OF ANIMAL HEAT. 

landing. On the other hand, this function of thfl 
sk in is so much weakened, almost paralyzed, whea 
the climate frbm which a person is passing is dry 
and bracing, and that into which he has passed is 
humid and relaxing, that congestions of blood take 
place in the larger vessels, the body becomes sus- 
ceptible of the least impression of marshy exhala- 
tions, and agues and similar diseases are produced." 
We shall now be able to understand why in 
ummer we suffer most from heat in what is called 
moist close weather, when no air is stirring ; and 
why warm climates, which are at the same time 
moist, are proverbially the most unwholesome. 
The chief reason is the diminished evaporation from 
the skin which such a condition of the atmosphere 
produces, partially shutting up the natural outlet of 
the superfluous heat of the body ; and as it at the 
same time checks the exit of the waste matter 
which ought to be thrown out, and which is known 
to be as injurious to the system as an active poison 
taken into the body from without, the hurtful con- 
sequences of such weather and climates, and the 
fevers, dysenteries, and colds to which they give 
rise, are partly accounted for. This is one powerful 
reason why night air is so unwholesome, particularly 
in malaria districts, which are loaded with moisture 
and miasma; for, when the air is dry as well as hot, 
and free evaporation takes place, little or no in- 
convenience is felt, and health oftener remains un- 
injured. Delaroche has established this point con- 
clusively by experiment. He exposed animals to a 
very high temperature in a dry air, and found them 
to sustain no mischief ; but when he exposed them 
in an atmosphere saturated with moisture, to a heat 
only a few degrees above that of their own bodies, 
ancl greatly lower than in the former instance, they 
very soon died. Here we see the reason also why, 
ii ague and other fevers, the suffering, restlessness* 
and excitement of the hot stage can never be abated 



CUTANEOUS ABSORPTION. 51 

till the sweat begins to flow, after which they rapidly 
subside ; and why the remedies which, given in the 
hot stage, added to the excitement and distress, may 
now be productive of the best effects. 

The function next to be noticed, viz. Absorption, is, 
in some measure, the opposite of the last. By its 
instrumentality, substances placed in contact with 
the skin are taken up and carried into the general cir- 
culation, either to be appropriated to some new pur- 
pose, or to be subsequently thrown out of the body. 

In the vaccination of children to protect them 
from small-pox, we have a familiar example of the 
process of absorption. A small quantity of cow- 
pox matter is inserted under the cuticle on the sur- 
face of the true skin, and there left. In a short 
time it is acted upon, and taken into the system, by 
the absorbent vessels. In like manner, mercurial 
preparations rubbed on the skin for the cure of liver 
complaint are absorbed, and affect the constitution 
precisely as when received into the stomach. Many 
even of the common laxatives, such as rhubarb and 
croton oil, have of late been successfully adminls 
tered in the same way, and the rapid absorption of 
poisons from bites of rabid animals and wounds in 
dissection through the same channel, is familiar to 
every one. It is from the active principle of the 
Spanish flies used in blisters being taken up by the 
cutaneous absorbents, that irritation of the kidneys 
and urinary organs so often attends the employment 
of that remedy. 

The process of absorption is carried on by vessels 
fitted for the purpose, which are thence named 
absorbent vessels, or simply absorbents. In the skin 
they are so exceedingly small and numerous, that 
when injected with mercury the surface is said by 
Br. Gordon to resemble a sheet of silver. In health 
they are of too small a size to admit the red parti- 
cles of the blood, and hence, from their contents 



52 CUTANEOUS ABSORPTION. 

being nearly transparent, they are sometimes named 
ymphatics. 

Some ascribe great, and others very little, import- 
ance to cutaneous absorption. In some diseases, 
as in diabetes, in which, occasionally for weeks in 
succession, the urinary discharge exceeds, by many 
ounces daily, the whole quantity of food and drink, 
without the body losing proportionally in weight, 
we can account for the system being sustained only 
by supposing moisture to be extensively absorbed 
from the air by the skin and lungs. The ancients, 
indeed, believed that, when food could not be retained 
in the stomach, a person might be nourished by 
placing him in a bath of strong soup or milk ; but 
recent experiments serve to show that, in such 
circumstances, absorption is too trifling in amount 
for any such result. Some indeed deny that any 
absorption would take place at all, because it is 
observed as a general fact that the body does not 
gain in weight by immersion in a warm bath. But 
the inference is not well founded, for occasionally 
weight is gained ; and even when it is not, as much 
water must have been absorbed as would make up 
the loss sustained during immersion by perspiration, 
which is believed to go on more rapidly in warm 
water than in the open air. 

That animals absorb copiously when immersed in 
water has been amply proved by Dr. Edwards and 
other physiologists. Dr. Edwards selected lizards 
as the subjects of experiment, because he regarded 
heir scaly skins as unfavourable for absorption. 
After reducing the bulk of a lizard by several days' 
exposure to a dry air, he immersed its tail and hind 
iegs in water, and found that absorption took place 
to such an extent as to restore the original plump- 
ness of all parts of the body. The same result at- 
tended a variety of other trials, so that the fact does 
not admit of doubt. In man, absorption from the 
surface is greatly retarded by the intervention of the 



CUTANEOUS ABSORPTION. 53 

cuticle ; and it is universally admitted that when this 
obstacle is removed, the process goes on with great 
vigour. Thus arsenic applied to cancerous sores, 
and strong solutions of opium to extensive burns in 
children, have been absorbed in quantities sufficient 
to poison the patients. Colic in its severest forms 
has followed similar external applications of the 
salts of lead. Mercury, also, in the form of fumiga- 
tion, has often been used where rapid action was 
required, because in the state of vapour it is very 
speedily taken up by the cutaneous absorbents. 

It is quite certain, then, that the skin does absorb. 
The only doubt is as to what extent the cuticle oper- 
ates in preventing or modifying that action. When 
friction accompanies the external application, the 
cuticle, as we see exemplified in the use of mercu- 
rial and other liniments, is not an efficient obstacle. 
But when friction is not resorted to, and the sub- 
stance applied is of a mild unirritating nature, such 
as oil, it may remain in contact with the skin for a 
long time without being taken into the system in 
appreciable quantities. If, however, it is irritating, 
like Spanish flies, absorption speedily begins, and is 
carried on through the cuticle, as is proved by the 
effects produced on the urinary organs. 

When the perspiration is brought to the surface 
of the skin, and confined there either by injudicious 
clothing or by want of cleanliness, there is much 
reason to suppose that its residual parts are again 
absorbed, and act on the system as a poison of 
greater or less power, according to its quantity and 
degree of concentration, thereby producing fever, 
inflammation, and even death itself; for it is estab- 
lished by observation, that concentrated animal 
effluvia form a very energetic poison. The fatal 
consequences which have repeatedly followed the 
use of a close water-proof dress by sportsmen and 
others, and the heat and uneasy restlessness which 
E 2 



54 . CUTANEOUS ABSORPTION. 

speedily ensue where proper ventilation is thus pre- 
vented, seem explicable only on some such principle. 
It is believed by many, that marsh miasmata and 
other poisons are absorbed by the skin, and Bichat 
considered^the fact as established in regard to the 
effluvia of dissecting-rooms. There are many rea- 
sons for concurring in this belief. The plague, for 
instance, is known to be much more readily commu- 
nicated by contact than by any other means, and this 
can happen only through the medium of absorption. 
Again, it is certain that flannel and warm clothing 
are extremely useful in preserving those who are 
unavoidably exposed to the action of malaria and of 
epidemic influences ; and these manifestly act chiefly 
by protecting the skin. A late writer on the Mala- 
ria of Rome strongly advocates this opinion, and 
expresses his conviction that the ancient Romans 
suffered less from it, chiefly because they were al- 
ways enveloped in warm woollen dresses. This 
opinion, he says, is justified by the observation, that 
since the period at which the use of woollen cloth- 
ing came again into vogue, intermittent fevers have 
very sensibly diminished in Rome. Even in the 
warmest weather the shepherds are now clothed in 
sheep-skins. Brocchi, who experimented exten- 
sively on the subject, obtained a notable quantity of 
putrid matter from the unwholesome air, and came 
to the conclusion, that it penetrated by the pores of 
the skin rather than by the lungs. Brocchi ascribes 
the immunity of the sheep and cattle, which pasture 
night and day in the Campagna, to the protection 
afforded them by their wool.* These remarks de- 
serve the serious attention of observers, — particu- 
larly as, according to Patissier, similar means have 
been found effectual in preserving the health of la-' 
bourers digging and excavating drains and canals in 
marshy grounds, where, previous to the employment 

* Edin. Phil. Journ January, 1833. 



CUTANEOUS ABSORPTION. 55 

of these precautions, the mortality from fever was 
very considerable. 

It is a general law, that every organ acts with in- 
creased energy when excited by its own stimulus ; 
and the application of this law to the different func- 
tions of the skin may help to remove some of our 
difficulties. The skin exhales most in a warm dry 
atmosphere, because the latter dissolves and carries 
off the secretion as fast as it rs produced; and the 
same condition is unfavourable to absorption, be- 
cause nothing is present upon which the absorbents 
of the skin can act. In a moist atmosphere, on the 
other hand, the absorbents meet with their appropri- 
ate stimulus, and act powerfully ; while exhalation 
is greatly diminished, because the air can no longer 
carry off the perspiration so freely. Apparently 
from this extensive absorption, we find the inhabit- 
ants of marshy and humid districts remarkable for 
the predominance of the lymphatic system, as has 
long been remarked of the Dutch ; and as malaria 
prevails chiefly in situations and seasons in which 
the air is loaded with moisture, and is most energetic 
at periods when absorption is most active and moist- 
ure is at its maximum, the probability of its being 
received into the system chiefly by cutaneous ab- 
sorption is greatly increased, and the propriety of 
endeavouring to protect ourselves from its influence 
by warm woollen clothing becomes more striking. 
In the army and navy, accordingly, where practical 
experience is most followed, the utmost attention is 
now paid to enforcing the use of flannel and suffi- 
cient clothing, as a protection against fever, dysen- 
tery, and other diseases, particularly in unhealthy 
climates. In the prevention of cholera, flannel was 
decidedly useful. 

From grouping all the constituent parts of the skin 
into one whole, and perceiving so many operations 
connected with that tegument, some may be apt to 



56 TOUCH AND SENSATION. 

suppose it an exception to the principle laid down, 
that no single part can execute more than a single 
direct function. In reality, however, it is only by 
taking the guidance of this principle that we can ex- 
tricate ourselves from the apparent confusion. We 
have already seen that exhalation, and the regulation 
of heat and absorption, are each connected with dis- 
tinct textures in the skin. On further examination, 
we shall find the office of Touch and Sensation in- 
trusted exclusively to another constituent part, the 
nemous ; for, in serving as the instrument of feeling, 
the skin acts in no other way than by affording a 
suitable surface for the distribution and protection 
of the nerves which receive and transmit to the 
brain and mind the impressions made on them by 
external bodies. In this respect the skin resembles 
the other organs of sense ; in all of which the nerve 
is the true instrument of the sense, and the eye, fhe 
ear, the nose, and the skin are simply structures fitted 
to bring the nerve into relation with the qualities of 
colour, sound, smell, roughness, or smoothness, by 
which they are respectively affected ; — and they 
differ from each other, because sound differs from 
colour, colour from smell, and smell from roughness 
or smoothness ; and because sound or colour can be 
taken cognizance of by its own nerve only when 
the latter is provided with an apparatus fit to be 
acted upon by the vibrations of the air, or by the 
rays of light. In every instance, it is the external 
object acting upon a ne-rve which gives rise to the 
mpression received from the organs of sense. 

Every part of the skin, however remote, is pro- 
vided with filaments from the nerves of sensation, 
in order that we may become immediately sensible 
of the presence and action of external bodies. If 
any part were destitute of this property, its texture 
and vitality might be destroyed without our con- 
sciousness of the fact ; whereas, in consequence of 
this provision of sensitive nerves, no object can 



TOUCH AND SENSATION. 57 

touch the skin without our being instantly made 
aware of its presence and properties. 

While, however, sensation is common to the 
whole surface of the body, there are parts of the 
skin more immediately destined by Nature for the 
exercise of Touch, and for the better appreciation 
of all the qualities of which it is cognizant. Such 
are the hands and tongue in man, the proboscis in 
the elephant, the tail in some of the monkey tribe, 
and the tenticula in fishes. Now, in accordance 
with the explanation given of the dependence of 
sensation upon nervous endowment, it is remark- 
able that all the parts destined for this special ex- 
ercise of Touch receive the most abundant sup- 
ply of sensitive nerves. Thus the nerves going to 
the hand and arm, the most perfect instruments of 
Touch and Sensation in man, are at their dorsal 
roots five times larger than those which are destined 
for its motion ; and, in like manner, the nerve sup- 
plying the tactile extremity of the proboscis of the 
elephant exceeds in size the united volume of all 
its muscular nerves. On the other hand, in animals 
covered with hair or feathers, whose Touch and 
Sensation are comparatively defective, the muscular 
nerves far exceed in size those of Sensation ; and 
wherever Nature has endowed any particular part 
with high sensitive powers, she is invariably found 
to have distributed to that part, and to it alone, a 
proportionally higher nervous endowment. In man, 
the innumerable nervous papillae destined for the 
exercise of Touch may be distinctly seen in parallel 
irregular rows on the fingers and palm of the hand, 
and everybody knows how acute the sense is in 
these parts. In fishes, on the other hand, no nervous 
papillae can be detected on the surface of the skin; 
but many of them have tentacula or projections 
generally about the mouth, for the special purpose 
of exercising Touch, and these are always plentifully 
supplied with branches from the fifth pair of nerves. 



58 TOUCH AND SENSATION. 

The nervous tissue of the skin is thus not only an 
important instrument for receiving and conveying 
to the mind accurate impressions in regard to th ^ 
properties of external objects, but it is even essen- 
tial to our continued existence. The pain which is 
caused by injuries is no doubt very disagreeable, but 
in its uses it is a positive blessing, in warning us 
against the danger, and even certain destruction 
which would speedily overtake us if we had no such 
monitor at hand. If we had no nerves on the sur 
face to communicate to us a lively impression of 
cold, we might inadvertently remain inactive in a 
temperature which would not only suspend perspira- 
tion, but benumb the powers of life ; or we might, 
on the other hand, approach so near the fire or boil- 
ing fluids as to have the organization destroyed be- 
fore we knew : whereas, by the kind interposition 
of the nerves, we cannot, when perspiring freely, be 
exposed to the cold air without an unpleasant sen- 
sation being experienced, impelling us to attend to 
our safety, and to keep up our heat either by addi- 
tional clothing or by active exercise. When the 
nervous and vascular parts of the skin are both in 
healthy action a pleasant soft warmth is felt over 
the body, which is in itself a delight, and which gives 
to the mind a lightness and hilarity, or pleasant con- 
sciousness of active existence, the very opposite of 
the low and languid depression which so generally 
accompanies continued defective action in the skin, 
and which forms a marked feature in many nervous 
arTections. 

For the due exercise of Sensation, the nerves 
must be in a proper state of health. If, for example, 
the cuticle protecting the nervous papillae be abraded, 
or removed by vesication, the naked nerves are too 
powerfully stimulated by the contact of external 
bodies, and instead of receiving and transmitting the 
usual impressions of heat, cold, figure, and hardness 
they communicate scarcely any feeling except that 



TOUCH AND SENSATION. 59 

dfpam ; while, if the cuticle become thickened by 
haid labour, the impression made on the nerves is 
proportionally lessened, and little information is con- 
veyed by them to the mind. 

A due supply of arterial blood is another requi- 
site for the action of the nerves of sensation. If 
they be deprived of this, as by exposing the body to 
a degree of cold sufficient to drive the blood from 
the surface, the nerves become almost insensible, 
and severe wounds may be received in this state 
without the individual being conscious of the acci- 
dent, or feeling the slightest pain. For the same 
reason, severe cold, after a certain time, ceases to 
be painful, and death ensues like deep sleep and 
without suffering. But when a frozen limb is thawed, 
and the returning circulation begins to set the nerves 
in action, then suffering commences, and the over- 
action is in danger of leading to inflammation. The 
same phenomena, in an inferior degree, must be fa- 
miliar to every one, in the prickling and tingling so 
commonly complained of on heating cold hands or 
feet too rapidly at a good fire, and which arise from 
the return of the blood stimulating the nerves to 
undue action. 

It is the nervous tissue of the skin which takes 
cognizance of the temperature of the bodies by 
which we are surrounded, and imparts to the mind 
the sensation of warmth or coldness. In the healthy 
state, the sensation is a correct index of the real 
temperature ; but, in disease, we often complain of 
rold and shivering when the skin is positively 
warmer than natural. In this way, those whose di- 
gestion is weak, and whose circulation is feeble, 
complain habitually of cold, and of cold feet, where 
others, differently constituted, experience no such 
sensations. Exercise dissipates this feeling and in- 
creases heat,by exciting the circulation of the blood, 
throwing more of it to the surface, and thereby^ 



60 TOUCH AND SENSATION. 

increasing the action of the cutaneous vessels and 
nerves. 

Some mental emotions operate upon the skin, and 
impair its functions much in the same way as cold. 
Grief, fear, and the depressing- passions, by dimin- 
ishing the afflux of arterial blood, render the skin 
pale, and at the same time diminish perspiration and 
nervous action ; while rage, and other violent pas- 
sions, by augmenting the afflux of blood, elevate the 
temperature of the skin, and give rise to the red 
flush, fulness, and tension so characteristic of ex- 
citement. Facts like these establish a connexion 
between the brain and the nervous system and the 
skin, which it is important not to overlook. The 
brain is readily admitted, by reflecting minds, to ex- 
ercise much influence on the general system, be- 
cause the nervous substance of which it is com- 
posed is collected into one focus, and, thus united, 
is seen to constitute a large mass. In reality, how- 
ever, the nervous matter, spread out on the surface 
of the body for the purposes of sensation, is so great 
that many anatomists consider it as even exceeding 
the mass of the brain, and hence its reverse influence 
might be expected to be, as it actually is, of much im- 
portance to health. 

We see this exemplified on exposure to intense 
cold. The first sensation of chill on the nervous 
surface of the skin is speedily succeeded by that of 
numbness and insensibility. The impression is 
thence communicated to the brain, which in its turn 
becomes affected, as is shown first by confusion of 
mind, as noticed by Captain Parry, and afterward 
by the total suspension of the mental powers, and 
the extinction of life itself. When, on the other 
nand, as in tropical climates, the surface is relaxed 
by excessive heat, the brain speedily participates in 
the relaxation, and the mind is unfitted for sustained 
Or vigorous action. 

Invalids and literary men often suffer severely 



FOLLICLES OF THE SKIN. 61 

from excess of action in the brain, and deficienc}' of 
activity in the nerves of the skin and remoter or- 
gans. The nervous stimulus, which is essential to 
digestion and to the health and warmth of the skin, 
cannot be provided when the brain is too exclusively 
exercised in thinking or feeling ; and for want of this 
stimulus, the tone of the digestive and cutaneous or- 
gans is greatly reduced, — the surface of the body 
becomes cold, shrunk, and uncomfortable, and the 
individual subject to annoyance and painful sensa- 
tions from trifles which formerly gave pleasure. 
Bad digestion and deficient warmth of surface are 
thus proverbially complained of among literary and 
sedentary persons, and can be removed only by ex- 
citing the nervous and vascular functions of the skin, 
and diminishing those of the brain. 

Such are the direct and important uses of the 
skin. But in addition to the parts already noticed, 
there are numerous small follicles contained in its 
substance, more abundant where hairs are implanted, 
and in the vicinity of the orifices of natural canals, 
than in other regions, but existing in all parts ex- 
cept the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. 
They are about the size of a millet seed, and the 
skin which contains them is thin, reflected on itself, 
and very vascular. Their cavities are filled with 
an oily humour susceptible of concretion and con- 
sistence, and each opens by an orifice at the external 
surface of the skin. It is this oily matter which 
prevents water from penetrating easily and relaxing 
the cuticle, and the absence of which, when it has 
been removed by the soda used in washing, allows 
the skin of the hands and fingers to assume that 
wrinkled and shrivelled appearance which is com- 
mon among washerwomen. 
F 



32 MORTALITY IN INFANCY FROM COLD. 



CHAPTER III. 

Mortality in Infancy from Cold — Animal Heat lowest at tha 
Age — Too little and too much Clothing equally bad — Rules 
for Dress — Advantages of Flannel, exemplified in H. M. S. 
Valorous — Ventilation of Beds and Clothing — Influence of 
Light — Importance of Ablution and Bathing — Cold, Tepid, 
and Warm Bath — Sponging with diluted Vinegar — Friction 
of the Skin — Vapour-bath and Warm Bath useful in prevent 
ing and curing Nervous Diseases and Liability to Cold — Sail 
ing and Riding useful by acting on the Skin. 

As it is only in its useful applications to the im- 
provement and happiness of man that knowledge 
truly becomes power, we proceed, in accordance 
with this principle, to point out some of the advan- 
tages derivable from that which we have attempted 
to communicate. 

It appears from the London Bills of Mortality, 
that between a fourth and a fifth of all the infants 
baptized die within the first two years of their ex- 
istence. This extraordinary result is not a part of 
the Creator's designs ; it does not occur in the 
lower animals., and must therefore have causes 
capable of removal. One of these, to speak only 
of what is related to the present inquiry, is unques- 
tionably the inadequate protection afforded, espe- 
cially among the poorer classes, to the new-born in- 
fant, against the effects of the great and sudden 
transition which it makes in passing at once from 
a high and almost unvarying temperature in the 
mother's womb, to one greatly inferior and con- 
stantly liable to change. At birth, the skin is deli- 
cate, extremely vascular, and highly susceptible of 
■mpressions • e >^ much so that ~:-~" s have dccu 



ANIMAL HEAT LOWEST IN INFANCY. 63 

in which a leech-bite has caused a fatal hemorrhage. 
The circulation is, in fact, cutaneous ; for the lungs, 
the stomach, the liver, and the kidneys are as yet 
new to life, and feeble in their functions. If the 
infant, then, be rashly exposed to a cold atmosphere, 
the mass of blood previously circulating on the sur- 
face of the body is immediately driven inwards by 
the contraction of the cutaneous vessels, and, by 
over-stimulating the internal organs, gives rise to 
bowel complaints, inflammations, croup, or convul- 
sions, which sooner or later extinguish life. This 
shows the inexpressible folly of those who baths 
infants daily in cold water even in winter, and freely 
expose them to the open air, or to currents from 
open doors or windows, with a view to harden 
their constitutions ; when it is quite certain that no 
more effectual means could be resorted to in the 
earlier months of life to undermine the general 
health and entail future disease on the unhappy 
subjects of the experiment. 

This hurtful practice has perhaps arisen in some 
degree from the prevalent error of supposing that 
infants have naturally a great power of generating 
heat and resisting cold. That the very opposite is 
the fact has been established by the experiments 
of Dr. Milne Edwards, which show that " the power 
of producing heat in warm-blooded animals is at its 
minimum at birth, and increases successively to adult 
age" and that instead of young animals being warmer 
than adults, they are generally a degree or two 
older, and part with their heat more readily. In 
en healthy infants, from a few days to two hours 
old, the mean temperature was observed by Dr. 
Edwards to be only 94°. 55 Fahr., that of adults be- 
ing 97° or 98° ; and in a seven mouths' child, three 
hours after birth, he found the temperature so low 
as 89°. 6, although the child was well clothed and 
near a good fire. That exposure to cold is really 
so injurious in infancy is unhappily proved by a 



64 TOO LITTLE AND TOO MUCF CLOTHING. 

multitude of facts. In France, as already alluded 
to in the first chapter, it is the custom to carry every 
infant, soon after birth, to the office of the maire 
that its birth may be registered. Suspecting that 
the exposure consequent upon such a practice must 
be pernicious to health, especially in winter, and 
where the distance is great, Dr. Edwards made in- 
quiry, and on consulting the returns made to the 
Minister of the Interior, found that the proportion 
of deaths within a very limited period after birth 
was much greater in winter than in summer, and in 
the northern than in the southern departments ; and 
on further inquiry he discovered that the mortality 
was greater in parishes where the inhabitants were 
scattered at a distance from the maire, than where 
they were congregated near him ; so that the num- 
ber of deaths in infancy seemed to be influenced by 
the degree and duration of the exposure to the cold 
air. What more striking proof than this can be re- 
quired of the evils arising from the ignorance of our 
legislators in regard- to the constitution of the human 
body ? No man who understood physiology could 
ever have sanctioned a law, the practical effect of 
which is to consign annually so many victims to an 
untimely grave. 

Many parents, from over-anxiety to avoid one 
form of evil, run blindfold into another scarcely less 
pernicious, and not only envelop infants in innu- 
merable folds of warm clothing, but keep them con- 
fined to very hot and close rooms. It would be well 
for them to recollect, however, that extremes are 
always hurtful, and that the constitution may be 
enfeebled, and disease induced, by too much heat 
and clothing and too close an atmosphere, as effec- 
tually as by cold and currents of air. The skin 
thus opened and relaxed perspires too easily, and is 
readily affected by the slightest variations of tem- 
perature ; whence arise colds and other ailments, 
which it is the chief intention to guard against : and 



RULES FOR DRESS. 65 

the internal organs, being at the same time deprived 
of their fair proportion of blood, become enfeebled, 
and afford inadequate nourishment and support to 
the rest of the body. 

The insensible perspiration being composed of a 
large quantity of water, which passes off in the form 
of vapour and is not seen, and of various salts and 
animal matter, a portion of which remains adherent 
to the skin, the removal of this residue by washing 
becomes an indispensable condition of health, the 
observance of which, particularly in early life, when 
waste and nutrition are both very active, prevents 
the appearance of cutaneous and other diseases 
common in infancy. Not only, therefore, is daily 
w ashing of the body required at that age, but a fre- 
quent change of clothing is essential, and every 
thing in the shape of dress ought to be loose and 
easy, both to allow free circulation through the 
vessels, and to permit the insensible perspiration to 
have a free exit, instead of being confined to and ab- 
sorbed by the clothes, and held in contact with the 
skin, as often happens, till it gives rise to irritation. 

In youth, the skin is still delicate in texture and 
the seat of extensive exhalation and acute sensa- 
tion, but it is at the same time more vigorous in 
constitution than it was in infancy ; and the several 
animal functions being now more equally balanced, 
it is less susceptible of disorder from external 
causes, and can endure with impunity changes of 
temperature which, at either an earlier or more ad- 
vanced age, would have proved highly injurious. 
The activity and restless energy of youth keep up 
a free and equal circulation even in the remotest 
parts of the body, and this free circulation in its 
turn maintains an equality of temperature in them 
all. Cold bathing and lighter clothing may now be 
resorted to with a rational prospect of advantage ; 
but when, from a weak constitution or unusual suscepti- 
bility* the shin is not endowed with sufficient vitality to 

p'a 



66 RULES FOR DRESS. 

originate the necessary reaction, which alone renders 
these safe and proper, — when they produce an abiding 
sense of chillness, however slight in degree, — we may 
rest assured that mischief will inevitably follow at a 
greater or shorter distance of time. Many young per- 
sons of both sexes are in the habit of going about in 
winter and in cold weather with a dress light and 
airy enough for a northern summer, and they think 
it manly and becoming to do so ; but those who are 
not very strongly constituted suffer a severe penalty 
for their folly. The necessary effect of deficient 
circulation and vitality in the skin is to throw a dis- 
proportionate mass of blood inwards ; and when this 
condition exists, insufficient clothing perpetuates the 
evil, until internal disease is generated, and health 
irrecoverably lost. Insufficient clothing not only 
exposes the wearer to all the risk of sudden changes 
of temperature, but it is still more dangerous (be- 
cause in a degree less marked, and therefore less 
apt to excite attention till the evil be incurred), in 
that form which, while it is warm enough to guard 
the body against extreme cold, is inadequate to pre- 
serving the skin at its natural heat. Many youths, 
particularly females and those whose occupations 
are sedentary, pass days, and weeks, and months 
without ever experiencing the pleasing glow and 
warmth of a healthy skin, and are habitually com- 
plaining of dullness of the surface, cold feet, and 
other symptoms of deficient cutaneous circulation. 
Their suffering, unfortunately, does not stop here, 
for the unequal distribution of the blood oppresses 
the internal organs, and too often, by insensible de- 
grees, lays the foundation of tubercles in the lungs, 
and other maladies, which show themselves only 
when arrived at an incurable stage. Young persons 
of a consumptive habit will generally be found to 
complain of this increased sensibility to cold, even 
before they become subject to those slight catarrhal 
attacks which are so often the immediate precur- 



RULES FOR DRESS. 67 

eors, or rather the first stages , of pulmonary con- 
sumption. All who value health, and have common 
sense and resolution, will therefore take warning 
from signs like these, and never rest till equilibrium 
of action be restored. For this purpose, warm 
clothing, exercise in the open air, sponging with 
vinegar and water, the warm bath, regular friction 
with a flesh-brush or hair-glove, and great cleanli- 
ness, are excellently adapted. 

But while sufficiency of clothing is attended to, 
excessive wrapping up must be as carefully avoided. 
Great differences in the power of generating heat 
and resisting cold exist in different individuals, and 
it would be absurd to apply the same rules to those 
who never feel cold as to those who are peculiarly 
sensitive. The former may be benefited by cold 
bathing and degrees of exposure which would be 
fatal to the latter. The rule is, therefore, not to 
dress in an invariable way in all cases, but to put on 
clothing in kind and quantity sufficient in the individ- 
ual case to protect the body effectually from an abiding 
sensation of cold, however slight. Warmth, however, 
ought not to be sought for in clothing alone. The 
Creator has made exercise essential as a means ; 
and if we neglect this, and seek it in clothing alone, it 
is at the risk or rather certainty of weakening the 
body, relaxing the surface, and rendering the sys- 
tem extremely susceptible of injury from the slight- 
est accidental exposures, or variations of tempera- 
ture and moisture. Many good constitutions are 
thus ruined, and many nervous and pulmonary com- 
plaints brought on, to imbitter existence, and to re- 
duce the sufferer to the level of a hot-house plant. 

Female dress errs in one important particular, 
even when well suited in material and in quantity. 
From the tightness with which it is made to fit on 
the upper part of the body, not only is the insensible 
perspiration injudiciously and hurtfully confined, but 
that free play between the dress and the skin which 



68 WET AND COLD FEET. 

is so beneficial in gently stimulating the iaiter by 
friction on every movement of the body is alto- 
gether prevented, and the action of the cutaneous 
nerves and vessels, and consequently the heat gene- 
rated, rendered lower in degree than would result 
from the same dress worn more loosely. Every 
part and every function are thus linked so closely 
with the rest, that we can neither act wrong as re- 
gards one organ without all suffering, nor act right 
without all sharing in the benefit. 

We can now appreciate the manner in which wet 
and cold feet are so prolific of internal disease, and 
the cruelty of fitting up schools and similar places 
without making adequate provision for the welfare 
of their young occupants. The circumstances in 
which wet and cold feet are most apt to cause dis- 
ease are where the person remains inactive, and 
where, consequently, there is nothing to counter- 
balance the unequal flow of blood which then takes 
place towards the internal parts : for it is well 
known that a person in ordinary health may walk 
about or work in the open air with wet feet for hours 
together without injury, provided he put on dry 
stockings and shoes immediately on coming home. 
It is therefore not the mere state of wetness that 
causes the evil, but the check to perspiration and the 
unequal distribution of blood to which the accom- 
panying coldness gives rise. Wet and damp are 
more unwholesome when applied to the feet than 
when they affect other parts, chiefly because they 
receive a large supply of blood to carry on a high 
degree of perspiration, and because their distance 
from the heart or centre of circulation diminishes 
the force with which this is carried on, and thus 
leaves them more susceptible of injury from ex- 
ternal causes. They are also more exposed in situa- 
tion than other parts of the skin ; but cold or wet 
applied anywhere, as to the side for instance, either 






ADVANTAGES OF FLANNEL. 69 

by a current of air or by rain, is well known to be 
pernicious. 

The advantages of wearing flannel next the skin 
are easily explicable on the above principles. Being 
a bad conductor of heat, flannel prevents that of the 
animal economy from being quickly dissipated, and 
protects the body in a considerable degree from the 
injurious influence of sudden external changes. 
From its presenting a rough and uneven though soft 
surface to the skin, every movement of the body in 
labour or in exercise gives, by the consequent fric- 
tion, a gentle stimulus to the cutaneous vessels and 
nerves, which assists their action, and maintains 
their functions in health; and being at the same 
time of a loose and porous texture, flannel is capable 
of absorbing the cutaneous exhalations to a larger 
extent than any other material in common use. In 
some very delicate constitutions, it proves even too 
irritating to the skin ; but, in such cases, fine fleecy 
hosiery will in general be easily borne, and will 
greatly conduce to the preservation of health. Many 
are in the custom of waiting till winter has fairly 
set in before beginning to wear flannel. This is a 
great error in a variable climate like ours, especially 
when the constitution is not robust. It is during 
the sudden changes from heat to cold, which are so 
common in autumn, before the frame has got inured 
to the reduction of temperature, that protection is 
most wanted, and flannel is most useful. 

The advantages of flannel as a preservative from 
disease in warm as well as in cold climates are 
now so well understood, that in the army and navy 
its use is cogently, and with great propriety, in- 
sisted on. Captain Murray, late of H. M. S. Valo- 
rous, told me that he was so strongly impressed 
from former experience with a sense of the efficacy 
of the protection afforded by the constant use of 
flannel next the skin, that when, on his arrival in 
England in December, 1823, after two years' ser- 



70 ADVANTAGES OF FLANNEL. 

vice amid the icebergs on the coast of Labrador, the 
ship was ordered to sail immediately for the West 
Indies, he ordered the purser to draw two extr* 
flannel shirts and pairs of drawers for each man, 
and instituted a regular daily inspection to see that 
they were worn. These precautions were followed 
by the happiest results. He proceeded to his 
station with a crew of 150 men; visited almost 
every island in the West Indies, and many of the 
ports in the Gulf of Mexico ; and, notwithstanding 
the sudden transition from extreme climates, re- 
turned to England without the loss of a single man, 
or having any sick on board on his arrival. In the 
letter in which Captain Murray communicates these 
facts, he adds, that every precaution was used, by 
lighting stoves between decks and scrubbing with 
hot sand, to ensure the most thorough dryness, and 
every means put in practice to promote cheerfulness 
among the men. When in command of the Recruit 
gun-brig, which lay about nine weeks at Vera 
Cruz, the same means preserved the health of his 
crew, when the other ships of war anchored around 
him lost from twenty to fifty men each. 

That the superior health enjoyed by the crew of 
the Valorous was attributable chiefly to the means 
employed by their humane and intelligent com- 
mander is shown by the analogy of the Recruit ; for 
although constant communication was kept up be- 
tween the latter and the other ships in which 
sickness prevailed, and all were exposed to the 
same external causes of disease, yet no case of 
sickness occurred on board the Recruit. Facts like 
these are truly instructive, by proving how far man 
possesses the power of protecting himself from 
injury, when he has received necessary instruction, 
and chooses to adapt his conduct to his situation. 

The exhalation from the skin being so constant 
and extensive, its bad effects, when confined, sug- 
gest another rule of conduct, viz. that of frequently 



VENTILATION OF BEDS AND CLOTHING. 71 

changing and airing the clothes, so as to free them 
from every impurity. It is an excellent plan, for 
instance, to wear two sets of flannels, each being 
worn and aired by turns, on alternate days. The 
effect is at first scarcely perceptible, but in the 
course of time its advantages and comfort become 
very manifest, as the writer has amply experienced. 
For the same reason, a practice common in Italy 
merits universal adoption. Instead of beds being 
made up in the morning the moment they are va- 
cated, and while still saturated with the nocturnal 
exhalations which, before morning, become sensible 
even to smell in a bed-room, the bed-clothes are 
thrown over the backs of chairs, the mattresses 
shaken up, and the window thrown open for the 
greater part of the day, so as to secure a thorough 
and cleansing ventilation. This practice, so conso- 
nant to reason, imparts a freshness which is pecu- 
liarly grateful and conducive to sleep, and its real 
value may be inferred from the well-known fact, that 
the opposite practice, carried to an extreme, as in 
the dwellings of the poor, where three or four beds 
are often huddled up with all their impurities in a 
small room, is a fruitful source of fever and bad 
health, even where ventilation during the day and 
nourishment are not deficient. In the abodes of the 
poor Irish residing in Edinburgh, I have seen bed- 
ding for fourteen persons spread over one floor not 
exceeding twelve feet square, and when mornin 
came, the beds were huddled above one another to 
make sitting-room during the day, and at night were 
again laid down, charged with accumulated exhala- 
tions. If fever were not to appear in such circum- 
stances, it would be indeed marvellous ; and we 
ought to learn from this, that if the extreme be so 
injurious, the lesser degree implied in the prevalent 
practice cannot be wholesome, and ought, there- 
fore, not to be retained when it can be so easily 
done awav with 



72 INFLUENCE OF LIGHT. 

The salutary influence of the solar light as & 
stimulus to the skin has been much overlooked, and 
yet it must be obvious to every one after a moment's 
reflection. Those who live in mines or dark caves, 
and who are rarely exposed to the light of day, pre- 
sent a pale relaxed sallowness of skin, which con- 
trasts with the ruddy freshness of country people 
and others living much in the open air. The in- 
habitants of towns may be known by the light 
colour and delicacy of skin which confinement 
induces. Part of the effect is owing, no doubt, to 
the agency of the external air, in the constitution 
of which the skin seems to produce changes analo- 
gous to those which take place in the lungs during 
respiration ; but much is also attributable to depri- 
vation of the stimulus of light. Even vegetables 
become pale, watery, and feeble in the dark; and, in 
like manner, men who work during the night and 
sleep during the day never present the vigorous 
look of health, which distinguishes well-fed day- 
labourers. The squalid paleness and depression of 
the poor population, resident in the dark lanes of 
large and crowded cities, show the necessity of 
consulting the wants of nature more than is gene- 
rally done, when erecting new streets and manufac- 
tories, and providing play-ground for the young. 

When the saline and animal elements left by the 
perspiration are not duly removed by washing or 
bathing, they at last obstruct the pores and irritate 
the skin. And it is apparently for this reason that, 
in the eastern and warmer countries, where perspi- 
ration is very copious, ablution and bathing have 
assumed the rank and importance of religious ob- 
servances. Those who are in the habit of using 
the flesh-brush daily are at first surprised at the 
quantity of white dry scurf which it brings off; and 
those who take a warm bath for half an hour at long 
intervals cannot fail to have noticed the great 
amount of impurities which it removed, and the 



IMPORTANCE OF ABLUTION AND BATHING. 73 

grateful feeling of comfort which its use imparts* 
The warm, tepid, cold, or shower bath, as a means 
of preserving health, ought to be in as common use 
as a change of apparel, for it is equally a measure 
of necessary cleanliness. Many, no doubt, neglect 
this, and enjoy health notwithstanding ; but many, 
very many, suffer from its omission ; and even the 
former would be benefited by employing it. The 
perception of this truth is gradually extending, and 
baths are now to be found in fifty places for one in 
which they could be obtained twenty years ago. 
Even yet, however, we are far behind our conti- 
nental neighbours in this respect. They justly con- 
sider the bath as a necessary of life, while we still 
regard it as a luxury. 

When we consider the importance of the exhala* 
tion performed by the skin, the extent to which ab* 
iution and bathing of every description are neglected 
in charitable institutions, in seminaries for the 
young, and even by many persons who consider 
themselves as patterns of cleanliness, is almost in- 
credible. Mr. Stuart, in speaking of the North 
Americans, states in his remarks, that " the prac- 
tice of travellers washing at the doors, or in the 
porticoes or stoops, or at the wells of taverns and 
hotels once a day, is most prejudicial to health ; the 
ablution of the body, which ought never to be neg- 
lected, at least twice a day, in a hot climate, being 
altogether inconsistent with it. In fact," he adds* 
u I have found it more difficult, in travelling in the 
United States, to procure a liberal supply of wates 5 
at all times of the day and night in my bedchamber" 
than to obtain any other necessary. A supply jot 
washing the face and hands once a day seems all that is 
thought requisite."* But, bad as this is, I fear that 
numbers of sensible people may be found much 
nearer home, who limit their ablutions to the visible 

* Three Years in America, vol. 11. p. 440 

Q 



74 COLD, TEPID, AND WARM BATH. 

parts of their persons, and would even express 
surprise if told that more than this is necessary to 
health. Certain it is, that many never wash their 
bodies at all, unless they happen to be at sea-bath- 
ing quarters in summer, or are oppressed with heat, 
when they will resort to bathing as a means of com- 
fort, but without thinking at all of its efficacy as a 
means of cleanliness in preserving health. In 
many public charities and schools, in like manner, 
bathing or ablution is never thought of as a proper 
or practicable thing, except for the sick ; and yet, 
it is obviously of great importance to every one, 
especially to the young.* 

For general use, the tepid or warm bath seems to 
me much more suitable than the cold bath, especi- 
ally in winter, and for those who are not robust and 
full of animal heat. Where the constitution is not 
sufficiently vigorous to secure reaction after the 
cold bath, as indicated by a warm glow over the 
surface, its use inevitably does harm. A vast num- 
ber of persons are in this condition ; while, on the 
contrary, there are few indeed who do not derive 
evident advantage from the regular use of the tepid 
bath, and still fewer who are hurt by it. 

Where the health is good, and the bodily powers 
are sufficiently vigorous, the cold bath during sum- 
mer, and the shower-bath in winter, may serve 
every purpose required from them. But it should 
never b e forgotten, that they are too powerful in 

* While revising these pages, a friend has mentioned to mo 
a case strikingly illustrative of the necessity of attending to the 
condition of the skin, and of the sympathy subsisting between 
it and the bowels. A lady, who is in other respects very cleanly 
in her habits, has never been accustomed to the use of the bath 
or to general ablution of any kind, and in consequence the skin 
acts very imperfectly. As z substitute, however, for its exhala- 
tion, she has all her life been affected with bowel complaint, 
which no treatment directed to the bowels has been able to re- 
move. It is probable that the natural course of the exhalation 
$ould not now be restored. 



COLD, TEPID, AND WARM BATH. 75 

their agency to be used with safety by every one, 
especially in cold weather. In proportion as cold 
bathing is influential in the restoration of health 
when judiciously used, it is hurtful when resorted 
to without discrimination ; and invalids therefore 
ought never to have recourse to it without the sane - 
tion of their professional advisers 

Even where cold bathing is likely to be of service 
when judiciously employed, much mischief often 
results from prolonging the immersion too long, or 
from resorting to it when the vital powers are too 
languid to admit of the necessary reaction — before 
breakfast, for example, or after fatigue. For this 
reason, many persons derive much benefit from 
bathing early in the forenoon, who, when they 
bathe in the morning before taking any sustenance, 
do not speedily recover their natural heat and elas- 
ticity of feeling. 

For those who are not robust, daily sponging of 
the body with cold water and vinegar, or salt water, 
is the best substitute for the cold bath, and may be 
resorted to with safety and advantage in most states 
of the system ; especially when care is taken to 
excite in the surface, by subsequent friction with 
the flesh-brush or hair-glove, the healthy glow of re- 
action. It then becomes an excellent preservative 
from the effects of changeable weather. When, 
however, a continued sensation of coldness or chill 
is perceptible over the body, sponging ought not to 
be persisted in : dry friction, aided by the tepid bath, 
is then greatly preferable, and often proves highly 
serviceable in keeping up the due action of the skin. 

For habitual use, the tepid or warm bath is cer- 
tainly the safest and most valuable, especially during 
the autumn, winter, and spring, and for invalids. A 
temperature ranging from 85° to 98°, according to 
the state of the individual, is the most suitable ; and 
the duration of the immersion may vary from fifteen 
minutes to an hour, or more, according to circum- 



76 COLD, TEPID, AND WARM BATH. 

stances. As a general rule, the water ought simply 
to be warm enough to feel pleasant, without giving 
a positive sensation of heat : the degree at which 
this happens varies a good deal according to the 
constitution and state of health at the time. Some- 
times, When the generation of animal heat is great, 
a bath at 95° will be felt disagreeably warm and re- 
laxing; while, at another time, when the animal 
heat is produced in deficient quantity, the same tem- 
perature will cause a chilly sensation. The rule, 
then, is to avoid equally the positive impressions of 
heat and of cold, and to seek the agreeable medium. 
A bath of the latter description is the reverse of 
relaxing ; it gives a cheerful tone and activity to all 
the functions, and may be used every day, or on 
alternate days, for fifteen or twenty minutes, with 
much advantage. 

A person in sound health and strength may take 
a bath at any time, except immediately after meals. 
But the best time for valetudinarians is in the fore- 
noon or evening, two or three hours after a moderate 
meal, when the system is invigorated by food, but 
not oppressed by the labour of digestion. When 
the bath is delayed till five or six hours after eating, 
delicate people sometimes become faint under its 
operation, and, from the absence of reaction, are 
rather weakened by the relaxation it then induces. 
As a general rule, active exertion ought to be avoided 
for an hour or two after using the warm or tepid 
bath; and, unless we wish to induce perspiration, 
it ought to be taken immediately before going to 
bed ; or, if it is, it ought to be merely tepid, and 
not of too long duration. 

These rules apply of course only to persons in an 
ordinary state of health. If organic disease, head- 
ache, feverishness, constipation, or other ailment 
exist, bathing ought never to be employed without 
medical advice. But that it is a safe and valuable 
preservative of health in ordinary circumstances, and 



VAPOUR-BATH. 77 

an active remedy in disease, is most certain. Instead 
of being dangerous by causing liability to cold, it is, 
when well managed, so much the reverse, that the 
author of these pages has used it much and suc- 
cessfully for the express purpose of diminishing 
such liability, both in himself and others with whom 
the chest is delicate. In his own instance, in par- 
ticular, he is conscious of having derived much ad- 
vantage from its regular employment, especially in 
the colder months of the year, during which he has 
uniformly found himself most effectually strength- 
ened against the impression of cold, by repeating 
the bath at shorter intervals than usual. 

In many manufactories where warm water is 
always obtainable, it would be a very great advan- 
tage to have a few baths erected for the use of the 
operatives. Not only would these be useful in pro- 
moting health and cleanliness, but they would, by 
their refreshing and soothing influence, diminish the 
craving for stimulus which leads so many to the gin- 
shop ; and, at the same time, calm the irritability of 
mind so apt to be induced by excessive labour. 
Where the trade is dirty, as many trades necessarily 
are, it is needless to say how conducive to health 
and comfort a tepid bath would be on quitting it for 
the day. 

On the Continent, the vapour and hot air-baths 
are had recourse to, both as a means of health and 
in the cure of disease, to an infinitely greater extent 
than they are in this country. Their use is attended 
by the very best effects, particularly in chronic ail- 
ments, and there can be no question that their action 
is chiefly on the skin, and through its medium on 
the nervous system. As a means of determining to 
the surface, promoting cutaneous exhalation, and 
equalizing the circulation, they are second to no 
remedy now in use ; and consequently, in a variety 
of affections which the encouragement of these 
processes is calculated to relieve, they may be em- 



78 vapour-bath- 

ployed with every prospect of advantage. The 
prevalent fear of catching cold, which deters many 
from using the vapour-bath, even more than from 
warm bathing, is founded on a false analogy be- 
tween its effects and those of profuse perspiration 
from exercise or illness. The latter weakens the 
body, and, by diminishing the power of reaction, 
renders it susceptible of injury from sudden changes 
of temperature. But the effect of the vapour-bath 
properly administered is very different. When not 
too warm or too long continued, it increases instead 
of exhausting the strength, and, by exciting the 
vital action of the skin, gives rise to a power of re- 
action which enables it to resist cold better than 
before. This I have heard many patients remark ; 
and the fact is well exemplified in Russia and the 
north of Europe, where, in the depth of winter, it is 
not uncommon for the natives to rush out of a va- 
pour-bath and roll themselves in the snow, and be 
refreshed by doing so ; whereas, were they to at- 
tempt such a practice after severe perspiration from 
exercise, they would inevitably suffer. It is the 
previous stimulus given to the skin by the vapour- 
bath which is the real safeguard against the cold- 
ness of the snow. 

Common experience affords another illustration 
of the same principle. If, in a cold winter day, we 
chance to sit for some time in a room imperfectly 
warmed, and feel in consequence a sensation of 
dullness over the body, we are much more likely to 
catch cold on going out than if we had been sitting 
in a room comfortably warm. In the latter case, 
the cutaneous circulation and nervous action go on 
vigorously ; heat is freely generated, and the vital 
action of the skin is in its full force. The change 
to a lower temperature, if accompanied with exer- 
cise to keep up this vitality, is then felt to be bracing 
and stimulating rather than disagreeable. But it is 
widely different when the surface is already chilled 



VAPOUR BATH. 79 

before going out. The vitality of the skin being 
diminished, reaction cannot follow additional ex- 
posure ; the circulation leaves the surface, and be- 
comes still more internal ; and, if weakness exists 
in the throat or chest, cold is the almost certain re- 
sult. Many suffer from ignorance of this principle. 

The vapour-bath is thus calculated to be exten- 
sively useful, both as a preservative and as a reme 
dial agent. Many a cold and many a rheumatic 
attack arising from checked perspiration or long 
exposure to the weather might be nipped in the bud 
by its timely' use. In chronic affections, not only 
of the skin itself, but of the internal organs with 
which the skin sympathizes most closely, as the 
stomach and intestines, the judicious application of 
the vapour-bath is productive of great relief. Even 
in chronic pulmonary complaints, it is, according to 
the continental physicians, not only safe, but very 
serviceable ; particularly in those affections of the 
mucous memUrane which resemble consumption in 
so many of their symptoms. Like all powerful 
remedies, however, the vapour-bath must be admin- 
istered with careful regard to the condition and cir- 
cumstances of the individual. 

It happens occasionally, either from some pecu- 
liarity of constitution, or from some unusual condi- 
tion of the skin, indicated by great dryness and a 
liability to erysipelatous and scaly eruptions, that 
the moisture of the water or vapour-bath is at first 
gather prejudicial and unpleasant, and becomes 
grateful only in proportion as the skin regains its 
healthy state. In such cases, the warm air-bath is 
said to be remarkably successful, and is gaining 
ground very rapidly in the metropolis. 

Although the preceding remarks apply specially 
to the skin considered as an exhalant, yet most of 
them are equally applicable to it when viewed as the 
seat of an important nervous function. For so inti- 
mately and beautifully are all the parts of the frame 



80 WARM BATH BENEFICIAL 

connected with each other, that w r hat is really good 
for one rarely if ever fails to be beneficial to the 
rest. Thus while exercise, adequate clothing, the 
bath, friction, and cleanliness are very efficacious 
in promoting the insensible perspiration and equal- 
izing the circulation, they are almost equally influ- 
ential in promoting the vital action of the innumer- 
able nervous filaments ramified on the skin, and the 
tone of which is as essential as that of the blood- 
vessels to the proper discharge of the cutaneous 
functions. In the large and afflicting class of ner- 
vous and mental diseases, attention to the skin be- 
comes therefore almost a sine qua non of successful 
treatment. As a preservative, too, it is influential. 
In most nervous ailments, languor and inaction of 
the skin show themselves simultaneously with the 
earliest dawn of mental uneasiness, and often attract 
notice before the morbid feelings of the mind have 
acquired either permanence or strength. At this 
early period, the use of the bath will frequently 
prove very efficacious in restoring health. 

Many imagine the tepid and warm bath to be 
weakening, but experience shows that they are so 
only when abused. When not too warm, and not 
prolonged beyond fifteen or twenty minutes, the 
tepid bath may be employed daily with perfect safety 
and advantage by persons in health ; while invalids, 
w r hose condition requires its use, are often strength- 
ened by a much longer and equally frequent immer- 
sion. I have seen it resorted to for an hour daily, 
for months in succession, by nervous invalids, with 
much benefit to health and strength ; and in France 
it is employed to an infinitely greater extent. At 
the immense hospital of Salpetriere at Paris, and 
also at Charenton, M. Esquirol has for many years 
directed it to be extensively used for two, three, 
and even five or six hours a day, and with excellent 
effect. When I visited the hospital for the insane 
at Charenton, and M. Esquirol's admirable private 



TO THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 81 

asylum at Ivry in September, 1831, that gentleman 
spoke to me in very strong terms of the benefits re- 
sulting from the practice, and declared that he had 
ever found it, when used with ordinary prudence, a 
safe and valuable remedy ; and that, in reality, it 
failed to do good in some cases more from the pa- 
tient remaining in it too short a time, than from its 
want of power to relieve. 

In the Medico-Chirurgical Reviews for January 
and April, 1833, a very interesting outline is given of ar 
article published in the Revue Medicale, illustrative of 
the efficacy of the tepid bath and the affusion of cooler 
water on the head during the last few minutes of im- 
mersion, in the cure of a variety of nervous and head 
affections of considerable obstinacy and severity. 
Dr. Johnson, the editor of the Review, adds his tes- 
timony to the success of the practice, and the re- 
sults obtained agree entirely with my own expe- 
rience ; but, as these papers relate to the treat- 
ment of disease, it would be out of place to do more 
here than recommend them to the attention of the 
professional reader. I may mention, however, that 
Dr. Recamier frequently orders the bath to be re- 
peated two, three, or even four times in a day. So 
little reality is there in its supposed debilitating 
effect. * 

I mention these facts to show, that attention to 
the health of the skin is really influential in preserv- 
ing the tone of the nervous system, and in con* 
tributing to mental and bodily comfort, and not for 
the purpose of inducing persons in bad health t<j 
have recourse to the bath of their own accord* 
which they ought never to do, as they may chance 
to suffer from using it unseasonably. No rules of 
universal application can be laid down, and this is 
not the place for a professional disquisition. 

If the bath cannot be had at all places, soap and 
water may be obtained everywhere, and leave no 
apology for neglecting the skin ; or, as already men- 



82 CONNEXION BETWEEN THE SKIN 

tioned, if the constitution be delicate, water and 
vinegar, or water and salt, used daily, form an ex- 
cellent and safe means of cleansing and gently- 
stimulating the skin: to the invalid, they are highly 
beneficial, when the nature of the indisposition does 
not render them improper. A rough and rather 
coarse towel is a very useful auxiliary in such ablu- 
tions. Few of those who have steadiness enough 
to keep up the action of the skin by the above means, 
and to avoid strong exciting causes, will ever suffer 
from colds, sore throats, or similar complaints ; 
while, as a means of restoring health, they are often 
incalculably serviceable. If one-tenth of the perse- 
vering attention and labour bestowed to so much 
purpose in rubbing down and currying the skins 
of horses, were bestowed by the human race in 
keeping themselves in good condition, and a little 
attention were paid to diet and clothing, — colds, 
nervous diseases, and stomach complaints would 
cease to form so large an item in the catalogue of 
human miseries. Man studies the nature of other 
animals, and adapts his conduct to their constitu- 
tion ; himself alone he continues ignorant of, and 
neglects. He considers himself as a being of a su- 
perior order, and not subject to the laws of organi- 
zation which regulate the functions of the inferior 
animals; but this conclusion is the result of igno- 
rance and pride, and not a just inference from the 
premises on which it is ostensibly founded. 

The writer of these remarks has, unfortunately 
for himself, had extensive experience, in his own 
person, of the connexion between the state of the 
skin and the health of the lungs ; and can therefore 
speak with some confidence as to the accuracy of 
his observations, and the benefit to be derived from 
attending to the condition of the skin in chronic pul- 
monary complaints. Many affections of a consump- 
tive character are preceded or begin by a deficiency 



ANP THE LUNGS. 83 

of vital action in the skin and extremities, and a 
consequent feeling of coldness in the feet and on 
the surface, and susceptibility of catarrhal affections 
from apparently inadequate causes, often long- before 
any pressing symptom, directly connected with the 
lungs, occurs to attract notice. In this state, means 
systematically directed to restoring the cutaneous 
circulation will frequently be successful in warding 
off consumption ; and even when the disease is 
formed, the same means will help to prolong life and 
relieve suffering, while they will go far to effect a 
cure in those chronic affections of the bronchial 
membrane which simulate consumption and are 
sometimes undistinguishable from it, and which, 
when mismanaged, are equally fatal. 

The two remedies which have the oldest and 
most general reputation in the successful treatment 
of pulmonary and consumptive disease have this 
quality in common, that both owe much of their 
influence to their exciting the cutaneous functions, 
and equalizing the circulation. I allude to sailing, 
and riding on horseback. Many authors speak of 
both in the highest terms, and Sydenham is well 
known to have considered the latter as almost a 
specific. Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, too, extols it 
with nearly equal force. So far as my observation 
goes, these exercises are productive of advantage, 
chiefly in proportion as they determine the blood to 
the surface, which squeamishness, sea-sickness, and 
riding all do in a powerful manner. Riding seems 
to have this effect, partly from the bodily exercise 
giving general vigour to the circulation, and partly 
from the continued gentle friction between the skin 
and the clothes stimulating the cutaneous vessels 
and nerves. This latter effect is of more import- 
ance than many believe. Those, accordingly, who 
are proof against sea-sickness, derive least benefit 
from the voyage ; while those who suffer under it 
long are compensated by the amelioration which it 



84 CONNEXION BETWEEN THE SKIN 

induces in the more serious malady. The writer of 
these remarks became ill in the month of January, 
1820, and soon presented many of the symptoms of 
pulmonary consumption. In spite of the best ad- 
vice, he continued losing ground till the month of 
July, when he went by sea to London, on his way 
to the south of France ; but, finding himself unable 
for the journey, he was obliged to return from Lon- 
don also by sea. Being extremely liable to sea- 
sickness, he was squeamish or sick during the whole 
of both voyages — so much so as to be in a state of 
gentle perspiration for a great part of the time. 
After this he became sensible for the first time of a 
slight improvement in his health and strength, and 
of a diminution of febrile excitement. Some weeks 
afterward, he embarked for the Mediterranean, and 
encountered a succession of storms for the first four 
weeks, two of which were spent, in the month of 
November, in the Bay of Biscay, in a very heavy sea. 
For more than th^ee weeks he was generally very 
sick, and always in a state of nausea ; and during 
the whole time, although his bed was repeatedly 
partially wetted by salt water, and the weather cold, 
the flow of blood towards the skin was so powerful 
as to keep it generally warm, always moist, and 
often wet with perspiration, forced out by retching 
and nausea. The result was, that, on entering the 
Mediterranean at the end of a month, and there 
meeting fine weather, he found himself, though still 
more reduced in flesh and very weak, in every other 
respect decidedly improved; and on his arrival in 
Italy at the end of 3even weeks, recover}' fairly 
commenced, after about ten months' illness, and by 
great care it went on with Kttle interruption, till the 
summer of 1821, when he returned home. 

To carry on what w r as so w^ll begun, riding on 
horseback in ihe country was resorted to, and that 
exercise was found to excite the skin so beneficially, 
ns to keep it always pleasantly warm, and generally 



AND THE LUNGS. 85 

bedewed with moisture, even to the extremities of 
the toes ; and in proportion to this effect was the 
advantage derived from it, in relieving the chest, 
increasing the strength, and improving the appetite. 
A second winter was spent in the south with equal 
benefit ; and in the summer of 1822, riding was re- 
sumed at home, and the health continued to improve. 
The excitement given to the skin by riding was 
sufficient to keep the feet warm, and to prevent even 
considerable changes of temperature from being 
felt ; and rain was not more regarded, although spe- 
cial attention was of course paid to taking off damp 
or wet clothes the moment the ride was at an end, 
Strength increased so much under this plan, com- 
bined with sponging, friction, and other means, that 
it was persevered in through the very severe winter 
of 1822-3, and with the best effects. For nine years 
thereafter the health continued good, under the 
usual exposures of professional life: but in 1831 it 
again gave way, and pulmonary symptoms of a sus- 
picious character once more made their appearance. 
The same system was pursued, and the same results 
have again followed the invigoration of the cutane- 
ous functions and of the general health, by a sea- 
voyage, horseback exercise, and the regular use of 
the bath. These, as formerly, have proved bene- 
ficial in proportion to their influence in keeping up 
the warmth and moisture of the surface and ex- 
tremities. 

In thus insisting upon the advantages of maintain 
ing the healthy action of the skin, I must not be 
supposed to ascribe the whole benefit to that cir- 
cumstance alone. So beautifully is the animal 
economy constituted, that it is impossible to use 
rational means for the invigoration of one organ or 
function, without good being done to all ; and so 
closely are the various parts allied to each other, 
that, to describe fully the functions and sympathies 
of any one, we would require to make the circle of 

e 



J30 SKIN NOT TO BE 

the whole. From this appears the fallacy of those 
who select the derangements of any one organ as 
the origin and source of all existing diseases. Some 
functions are no doubt more important, and their 
disorders exercise a wider influence over the gene- 
ral health than others ; but no one who knows the 
structure of the human body and the relations of its 
parts, or has carefully observed the phenomena of 
disease, can be satisfied with such exclusive reason- 
ing. The stomach, the bowels, the liver, and the 
nervous system have each had their patrons, and 
the derangement of each has been specially held 
out as the grand fountain of human misery. Each 
doctrine, too, has been demonstrated, by cases and 
cures, to be superior to all the rest, and each has 
proved successful in its turn, where the others had 
been tried and failed. Far, however, from proving 
the propriety of exclusiveness in favour of any one 
organ, such facts, rightly considered, demonstrate 
the reverse, and show that successful practice re- 
quires views and remedies founded on a careful 
examination of every function ; and afford a strong 
presumption that the man who traces every illness 
to the liver, the stomach, or the nerves will be at 
least as often strikingly wrong, as strikingly right. 

In saying, therefore, that attention to the state of 
the skin is influential in preserving and restoring 
health, we wish to represent it as an important, but 
by no means exclusive condition, and to ascribe to 
the means used for invigorating its functions their 
due share of action upon other organs and functions. 
Sailing, for example, is useful in pulmonary com- 
plaints, not only because its accompanying nausea 
causes a healthful flow of blood from the internal 
parts to the surface, but because the gentle and 
constant exercise occasioned by the movement of 
the ship is admirably adapted to a debilitated state 
of the system, when other exercise cannot be taken 
without hurrying the breathing or inducing fatigue ; 



EXCLUSIVELY ATTENDED TO. 87 

and because pure, fresh, bracing air is of infinite 
importance in all, and especially in pulmonary af- 
fections. Attention to the skin must, therefore, 
never be considered for a moment as superseding 
attention to the other functions. That were a per- 
nicious mistake. It must be regarded as a part 
only, though an important part, of a rational and 
consistent treatment, and its efficacy will often de- 
pend, in no small degree, on the care which is taken 
to support its effects by a scrupulous attention to 
the necessities of the rest of the system. 

When these pages were passing through the press 
in the form in which their substance first appeared 
in a periodical journal, I was surprised and gratified 
on seeing a work advertised, on the same subject 
and with almost the same title, by Dr. Wood of 
Newry. On afterward procuring the book, I was 
much pleased to perceive the extent to which our 
views harmonized, and to find that Dr. Wood, as 
well as myself, had felt the want of popular informa- 
tion on the functions of the animal economy, and 
come to the conclusion, that, even by medical men, 
the influence of the skin on the general health and 
in the treatment of disease is too much overlooked. 



88 STRUCTURE AND ATTACHMENTS OF MUSCLES. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Muscles — Their Structure, Attachments, and Conditions of Ac- 
tion — Necessity of Arterial Blood and of Nervous Influence — 
Illustrations — Muscles act by alternate Contraction and Re- 
laxation — Fatigue consequent on continuing the same Attitude 
explained — Injuries of Spine from Neglect of this Law, and 
from sedentary Occupations in School — The Mind ought to be 
engaged in Exercise as well as the Body — Superiority of 
cheerful Play and amusing Games — A dull Walk the least 
useful Exercise — Influence of Mental Stimulus illustrated by 
Examples — Exercise to be proportioned to Strength — Laws 
of Exercise. 

Having examined the nature and uses of the skin, 
we may next proceed to consider the important 
system of organs, lying almost immediately under 
it, viz. the Muscles ; which, although in constant 
activity during our waking hours, and of indispen- 
sable necessity to man in every movement which he 
makes, are perhaps less familiarly known than 
almost any other part of the body. As the study of 
the muscular system involves an exposition of the 
principles which ought to regulate exercise, it can 
scarcely fail to excite the attention of the general 
reader, and especially of those who, as parents or 
teachers, are interested in the education of the 
young. 

The muscles are those distinct and compact bun- 
dles of fleshy fibres which are found in animals im- 
mediately on removing the skin and subjacent fat; 
and which, although perhaps not known to all under 
their generic" or scientific name, are familiar to 
every one as constituting the red fleshy part of 
meat. 

Every muscle, or separate bundle of fleshy sub- 
stance, is composed of innumerable small fibres or 



STRUCTURE AND ATTACHMENTS OF MUSCLES. 89 

threads, each separated from, and at the same time 
)oosely connected with, the others by a sheath of 
cellular membrane, enveloping it, but which is so 
thin as not to obscure the colour of the fibre, or 
attract notice unless specially looked for. Each 
muscle is in its turn separated from the neighbour- 
ing muscles by thicker layers or sheaths of the same 
membrane, in some of the cells of which fat is de- 
posited, especially where the interval between the 
muscles is considerable ; and hence the elegantly 
rounded form of the limbs, which without this fat 
would present the rigid, sharp, and prominent out- 
line which we see occasionally in strong persons of 
a spare habit of body. From the loose texture of 
the connecting cellular membrane, the muscles 
enjoy perfect freedom of motion during life, and 
admit of being easily separated from each other after 
death, either by the knife, or by simply tearing the 
cellular tissue. 

Muscles, speaking generally, may be divided into 
three parts, of which the middle fleshy portion, 
called the belly, is the most conspicuous and im- 
portant. The other two are the opposite ends, 
commonly called the origin and insertion of the 
muscle. The belly is the bulky and fleshy part, by 
the contraction or shortening of the fibres of which 
the two ends are brought nearer to each other, while 
the belly itself swells out in a lateral direction. 
When we attempt to lift a heavy weight in the hand, 
or to overcome any resistance, the muscles which 
bend the arm may be seen and felt to start out, rigid 
and well defined in their whole extent, while their 
extremities tend powerfully to approach each others 
and of course to carry along with them the bones 
to which they are attached. In consequence of this 
tendency, if the weight be unexpectedly knocked 
out of the hand before we have time to obviate the 
result, the muscles, having then no resistance to 
overcome, will contract violently, and throw the 
H2 



90 STRUCTURE AND ATTACHMENTS OF MUSCLES. 

hand up with a sudden jerk. Voluntary motion is, 
in fact, effected by the contraction of muscles acting 
upon and changing the relative positions of the 
bones or solid support of the system, and therefore 
almost all muscles are attached to one bone by their 
origin, and to another by their insertion ; the former 
being merely the fixed extremity, towards which the 
opposite and more moveable end, called the insertion, 
is carried by the shortening of the intervening belly 
of the muscle. 




The figure represents the bones of the arm and hand, having 
all the soft parts dissected off except one muscle O B I, of 
which the function is to bend the arm. O the origin of the 
muscle. B the belly. I the insertion. T T the tendons 
S the shoulder-joint. E the elbow. When the belly con- 
tracts, the lower extremity of the muscle, I, is brought 
nearer to the origin or fixed point O, and, by thus bending 
the arm at the elbow-joint, raises up the weight W placed 
in the hand. 

If the muscles must be attached to bones, it maj 
be asked,-— how can the bones, which present com- 
paratively so small a surface, afford space enough 
for the attachments of muscles, which are so much 
larger, and which even appear in successive layers 
above each other % This difficulty is obviated in 
two ways. In the first place, the heads and other 
parts of bones to which muscles are attached are 



NATURE OF THE MUSCLES. 91 

enlarged so as to present a greater surface than the 
body of the bone, and form what are called processes, 
for the obvious purpose of affording greater room ; 
and, secondly, instead of all the fleshy fibres of a 
muscle being prolonged to its points of attachment 
at the bone, they, with few exceptions, terminate 
gradually, as they proceed from the belly, in a white 
shining tendon, of a much smaller size than the 
muscle, but of great strength, which is inserted into 
the bone. These tendons, or sinews as they are 
occasionally named, conduce greatly to symmetry, 
elegance, and freedom of motion ; and may be traced 
under the skin on the back of the hand, and in the 
very powerful specimen at the heel, called the ten- 
don of Achilles. The hamstrings are another ob- 
vious example, and may be easily felt becoming 
tight when an effort is made to bend the knee. 
There are a few muscles not attached to bones by 
either extremity, and also a few which have no ten- 
dons. Those which surround the eyebrows, the 
mouth, the gullet, and some of the other natural 
passages are of the former description ; as is also 
the heart. Some of the muscles of the trunk have 
no tendons, but these are few in number, and may 
at present be considered exceptions to the general 
rule. 

In man, and in most of the animals with which 
we are familiar, the muscles are of a red colour. 
This, however, depends entirely on the blood which 
they contain ; for so far is the colour from being 
essential to their constitution, that it may be de- 
stroyed by washing out the blood which produces 
it, the muscular substance remaining in other re- 
spects unchanged. Hence the colour of the muscles 
varies with that of the blood, — is dark where it is 
dark, pale where it is pale, and white where it is 
white. The true characteristic of muscular fibre 
IS contractility, or the power of shortening its substance 



S2 DIRECTION OF MUSCLES. 

on the application of stimuli, and again relaxing when 
the sti?nulus is withdrawn. 

The direction in which the fleshy fibres run de- 
termines the direction of the motion effected by 
their contraction. In some muscles the fibres are 
nearly parallel, and act consequently in a straight 
line. In others they run obliquely, producing a cor- 
responding obliquity of motion ; while in others they 
are disposed like feathers in relation to a quill, and 
are, therefore, styled penniform. A few are cir- 
cularly disposed round openings, and contract 
towards a common centre, like the mouth of a purse 
closed by its strings. When the direction varies, it 
is always to effect a particular kind of action. Re- 
markable contrivances appear for this end: one 
muscle of the lower jaw, for example, is divided into 
two distinct fleshy bellies by an intermediate thin 
strong tendon, which passes through and plays in a 
pulley adapted for its reception ; its two portions 
being by this means enabled to operate with full 
effect almost at right angles to each other. A sim- 
ilar arrangement is found in the trochlearis or pulley- 
muscle of the eyeball ; and modifications of a dif- 
ferent kind occur in other muscles, as in those of 
the fingers and toes, wherever a particular object is 
to be accomplished. 

The chief purpose of the muscles is obviously to 
enable us to carry into effect the various resolutions 
and designs — or volitions, as they are termed by 
philosophers — which have been formed by the mind. 
But while fulfilling this grand object, their active 
exercise is at the same time highly conducive to 
the well-being of many other important functions. 
By muscular contraction, the blood is gently as- 
sisted in its course through the smaller vessels and 
more distant parts of the body, and its undue accu- 
mulation in the internal organs is prevented. The 
Important processes of digestion, respiration, secre- 
tion, absorption, and nutrition are promoted, and 



CONDITIONS OF MUSCULAR ACTION. 93 

the health of the whole body immediately influ- 
enced. The mind itself is exhilarated or depressed 
by the proper or improper use of muscular exercise ; 
and it thus becomes a point of no slight importance 
to establish general principles by which that exercise 
may be regulated. 

The first requisite for healthy and vigorous mus- 
cular action is the possession of strong and healthy 
muscular fibres. In every part of the animal econ- 
omy, the muscles are proportionate in size and 
structure to the efforts required from them ; and it 
is a law of nature, that whenever a muscle is called 
into frequent use, its fibres increase in thickness 
within certain limits, and become capable of acting 
with greater force and readiness ; and that, on the 
other hand, when a muscle is little used, its volume 
and power decrease in a corresponding degree. 
When in a state of activity, the quantity of blood 
which muscles receive is considerably increased ; 
and, in consequence, those which are much exer- 
cised become of a deeper red colour than those 
which are less used. The reason of this will be 
evident, when we recollect that to every organ of 
the body arterial blood is an indispensable stimulus, 
and that its supply is, during health, always propor- 
tioned to the extent and energy of the action. When 
any part, therefore, is stinted of its usual quantity of 
blood, it very soon becomes weakened, and at last 
loses the power of action, although every other con- 
dition required for its performance may remain un- 
impaired. 

It is the infringement of this condition that entails 
so much misery upon our young manufacturing popu- 
lation, and even upon many of the inmates of our 
boarding-schools. Wasted by excessive labour, 
long confinement, and miserable diet, the muscular 
system is stinted in growth, and weakened in struc- 
ture ; and the blood, impoverished by insufficiency 
of nourishing food and by a vitiated atmosphere, is 



y4 CONDITIONS OF MUSCULAR ACTION. 

no longer capable of repairing the waste consequent 
upon exercise, or of affording a healthy stimulus to 
the vessels and nerves which animate the muscles. 
Languor, debility, and exhaustion of mind necessa- 
rily follow ; and the individual is left susceptible of 
no stimulus but that of ardent spirits or of excited 
or reckless passion. 

In youth, not only must the waste of materials be 
replaced, but an excess of nourishment must be 
provided, to admit of the continued growth which 
is the chief function of our earlier years. If this be 
denied, the development of the bodily organs often 
receives a check which no subsequent treatment 
can remedy, and a foundation is laid for diseases 
of debility which afterward imbitter and endanger 
life. From pretty extensive inquiry, I am satisfied 
that in boarding-schools, especially for females, this 
important principle is often disregarded ; while the 
conductors are at the same time without the least 
suspicion of the evil they are producing, and even 
take credit to themselves for only checking sensual 
appetites, and promoting temperance in eating as 
well as in drinking. Youth requires the best and 
most nutritious food, and such ought regularly to 
be provided. Weak broth, twice-cooked hashes, 
and quantities of vegetables and watery milk, are 
not sufficient sustenance for a young and growing 
frame. Can we be surprised that, with such a diet, 
worm-powders and stomachic medicines are in con- 
stant demand, and that, even with the assistance 
of these, the girl shoots up thin, pale, and fleshless 1 
Let it not be supposed that I wish to make a god 
of the belly : my object is the reverse of this, and I 
am sure that no better means can be used to effect 
it than to give a sufficiency (not an excess) of whole- 
some and nourishing food, which alone will satisfy 
the stomach, and obviate the constant craving 
which is a frequent and painful concomitant of de- 
ficiency of food. Let it b# considered how soon, in 



CONDITIONS OF MUSCULAR ACTION. 95 

cases of shipwreck for example, men previously 
well fed are wasted away by bodily labour when 
deprived of a full allowance of food, and it will not 
be difficult to form some conception of the import- 
ance of this condition to the well-being of the mus- 
cular system. 

Something more than mere muscle, however, is 
required for the production of regulated or volun- 
tary motion. The muscle itself, though perfect in 
strength and in structure, would otherwise remain 
inert. A stimulus is required to put it into activity, 
and to direct its contraction ; and this stimulus is 
conveyed to it by the nerves. As we write, the 
muscles which move the fingers and guide the pei? 
obviously follow the commands of the will ; and tht 
moment the will is withdrawn they cease to oper- 
ate. If the will be feeble and undecided, the mus- 
cular movements will be equally weak and irreso- 
lute ; whereas, if the mind be powerfully excited 
and the will energetic, strength, rapidity, and deci- 
sion will equally characterize all the movements 
of the body. Under the intense excitement and 
headlong fury of madness, the muscular action of an 
otherwise feeble man acquires a force often ex- 
ceeding all our powers of control. 

It will be at once perceived from this description, 
that, in effecting voluntary motion, we must have 
in operation, first. The brain, or organ of mind, as 
the source of the will ; secondly, The nerves, which 
convey the intimations of the will to the muscles ; 
and, thirdly, The muscles themselves, by whose 
contractile powers motion is produced. It will be 
understood, also, why the number and size of the 
nerves distributed to a muscle are in proportion, not 
simply to its volume, but to the variety, frequency, 
and vivacity of the movements required from it ; 
and why some small muscles employed in many 
combinations are therefore supplied with a greater 



96 INFLUENCE OF NERVES 

variety of nerves than others double their size, but 
with more simple functions. 

Muscular power is (other circumstances being 
equal) proportioned to the size of the muscle ; but 
it often happens that great power is required where 
bulk of muscle would be inconvenient or cumber- 
some. In such cases, it is supplied with an in- 
creased endowment of nervous filaments, which 
make up by the strength of stimulus what the mus- 
cle wants in bulk of fibre. Many birds, for example, 
require great muscular power to sustain them in 
their long and rapid flights through the air, and owe 
its possession chiefly to the strong stimulus im- 
parted to moderate-sized muscles by large nerves, 
which add nothing, or next to nothing, to their 
weight ; whereas, had the greater power been ob- 
tainable only from an augmentation of fleshy fibres, 
the consequent addition of weight would, from the 
greatly increased difficulty the animal must have 
felt in raising and sustaining itself in the air, have 
gone far to counterbalance any advantage gained on 
the side of power. But in fishes, which float with- 
out effort in their own element, size produces no 
such inconvenience, and their strength, accordingly, 
is made to depend more on the volume of the mus- 
cle than on its nervous endowment, — showing a 
beautiful adaptation to the mode of life and wants 
of the animal. 

As voluntary motion depends as much on nervous 
stimulus as on muscular agency, it happens that 
whatever interrupts the action of the nerves puts a 
stop to motion as effectually as if the muscular fibre 
itself were divided. Injuries and diseases of the 
brain, whence the will emanates, are well known to 
be accompanied with palsy, or want of power in the 
muscles, although in their own structure the latter 
remain sound. Sleep and narcotics, too, suspend 
voluntary motion, solely in consequence of their 
action on the nervous system. Ardent spirits, in v 



ON MUSCULAR ACTION. 



97 



like manner, disturb the regularity of muscular ac- 
tion, solely by previously disordering- the brain ; and 

hence the unsteady 
gait and faltering 
elocution of a se- 
mi-intoxicated per- 
son are sometimes 
removed in an in- 
stant by some pow- 
erful mental im- 
pression being sud- 
denly made, suffi- 
cient to restore the 
brain to its natural 
state, and thereby 
to give unity and 
steadiness to the 
nervous impulse 
proceeding from it 
to the muscles.— 
For the same rea- 
son, although the 
brain and muscles 
be perfectly sound, 
yet if the commu- 
nication between 
them be impaired 
or destroyed by 
the compression 
or division of the 
nerves, the mus- 
cles cease to act. 
The muscles of 
the human body 
are upwards of 400 
in number, and 
form several lay- 
ers lying over each 




98 INFLUENCE OF NERVES 

other. That some conception may be formed of 
their arrangement and distribution, the superficial 
layer, or that which appears immediately on re- 
moving the skin, is represented in the annexed 
woodcut, taken from a little volume entitled " The 
Physician," published by the Society for the Diffu- 
sion of Useful Knowledge. To understand tl e uses 
of the various muscles, the reader has only to bear 
in mind that the object of muscular contraction is 
simply to bring the two ends of the muscle and the 
parts to which they are attached nearer to each 
other, the more moveable being always carried to- 
wards the more fixed point. Thus, when the sterno- 
mastoid muscle/ g- contracts, its extremities approx- 
imate, and the head being the moveable point, it is 
pulled down and turned to one side. This may be 
easily seen in the living subject, the muscle being 
not less conspicuous than beautiful in its outline. 
Again, when the powerful rectus or straight muscle 
b on the front of the thigh contracts with force, as 
in the act of kicking, its lower end attached to the 
knee-pan and leg tends to approximate to the upper 
or more fixed point, and pulls the leg strongly for- 
wards. This occurs in walking. But when the 
sartorius or tailors' muscle c is put in action, its 
course being oblique, the movement of the leg is no 
longer in the straight line, but in a cross direction 
like that in which tailors sit, and hence the name 
sartorius. 

Another variety of effect occurs when, as in the 
rectus, or straight muscle of the belly i i, sometimes 
one end and sometimes both are the fixed points. 
When the lower end is fixed, the muscle bends the 
body forward and pulls down the bones of the chest. 
When, as more rarely happens, the lower end is the 
moveable point, the effect is to bring forward and 
raise the pelvis and inferior extremities ; and when 
both ends are rendered immoveable, the contraction 
of the muscle tends to compress and diminish the 



ON MUSCULAR ACTION. 99 

size of the cavity of the belly, and thus not only 
assists the natural evacuations, but co-operates in 
the function of respiration. 

In contemplating this arrangement, it is impossi- 
ble not to be struck with the consummate skill with 
w r hich every act of every organ is turned to account. 
When the chest is expanded by a full inspiration, the 
bowels are pushed downwards and forwards to make 
way for the lungs ; when the air is again expelled, 
and the cavity of the chest diminished, the very 
muscles i i i, which effect this by pulling down the 
ribs, contract upon the bowels also, and push them 
upwards and inwards, as can be plainly perceived 
by any one who attends to his own breathing. By 
this contrivance, a gentle and constant impulse is 
given to the stomach and bowels, which is of great 
importance to them in contributing to digestion and 
in propelling their contents ; and one cause of the 
costiveness with which sedentary people are so 
habitually annoyed is the diminution of this natural 
motion in consequence of bodily inactivity. 

From the preceding exposition, the action of the 
muscles a, k, Z, which bend the arm and forearm, 
will be easily understood, and some notion may be 
formed of the innumerable combinations into which 
a system composed of upwards of 400 pieces may 
be thrown, in effecting all the movements required 
from the human frame. In some of the operations 
in which we engage, nearly the whole, and in others 
only a part, of the muscles are thrown into action 
at one time. The simultaneousness of action which 
obtains in such instances, and which occurs in 
almost every act of life, however simple, and with- 
out which no dictate of the will could be harmoni- 
ously and successfully obeyed, depends solely on 
the distribution and connexions of the nerves which 
animate the muscles. Every individual fibre of 
every muscle is supplied with nervous filaments, and 
different fibres of the same muscle are indebted for 



100 INFLUENCE OF NERVES 

the simultaneousness of their excitement to the con- 
nexion established between each of them by these 
filaments. Wherever many muscles combine to 
execute an important movement, they are uniformly 
found to be provided with, and connected by, 
branches from the same system of nerves ; as, with- 
out this means, simultaneousness of action could not 
be ensured. Thus the muscles which cover the 
upper part of the chest co-operate in the voluntary 
movements of the arm, and at the same time in the 
respiratory movements of the chest ; but these, 
being two distinct purposes, require different com- 
binations of the muscles among themselves. To 
effect these combinations, two sets of nerves are 
provided, as has been shown by Sir Charles Bell ; 
the one regulating the respiratory, and the other the 
purely voluntary movements of the muscles. This 
is the true reason why the same muscle sometimes 
receives nerves from two or three different quarters ; 
a circumstance which, before the principle was dis- 
covered, and when all nerves were considered alike, 
was altogether inexplicable, and seemed a work of 
mere supererogation. 

The influence of the nervous agency maybe still 
further illustrated. When the trunk of a musculaT 
nerve is irritated b) 7 the contact of an external body, 
or by the electric spark, the muscles which it supplies 
instantly contract, but without either harmony or 
permanency of action: the contraction is like the 
violent and ill-regulated start of convulsion. It is 
the influence of the brain and mind in the equal dif 
fusion of the required stimulus to each muscle, in 
the exact proportion needful, that characterizes 
healthy and sustained voluntary motion, as opposed 
to the irregular convulsive start. Nothing can be 
more wonderful than the accuracy with which, in 
the most delicate movements, this stimulus is ad- 
justed and apportioned to sucfa a variety of parts, 
particularly where practice, or, in other words, edu- 



ON MUSCULAR ACTION. 101 

cation, has rendered the combination of powers 
easy and certain. Not to mention the more obvious 
and graceful movements of dancing, fencing, and 
riding, we discover, in the management of the hand 
and fingers by engravers, sculptors, watchmakers, 
jugglers, and other artists and mechanics, a minute 
accuracy of muscular adjustment to effect a given 
end, which is the more surprising the more we 
consider the complicated means by which it is 
effected. 

In consequence of the co-operation of both nerve 
and muscular fibre being required to effect motion, 
excess of action in each is followed by results pecu- 
liar to itself. If the nerves preponderate, either 
constitutionally or from over-exercise, — as they are 
apt to do in highly nervous temperaments,— their 
excessive irritability renders them liable to be un- 
duly excited by ordinary stimuli ; and hence, as in 
hysteric and nervous females, a proneness to sudden 
starts, cramps, and convulsions, from causes which 
would scarcely affect an individual differently con- 
stituted. Such persons have little muscular power, 
except under excitement ; they then become capable 
of great efforts, of short duration, but sink propor- 
tionally low when the stimulus is past. If, on the 
other hand, the muscles predominate, as in athletic 
strong-built men, the nervous system is generally 
dull and little susceptible of excitement, and the 
muscles which it animates are consequently little 
prone to the rapid and vivacious action which ac- 
companies the predominance of the nervous func 
tions. Great strength and capability of bodily labour 
are then the characteristics. 

Great muscular power and intense nervous action 
are rarely conjoined in the same individual; but 
when they do happen to meet, they constitute a per- 
fect genius for muscular exertion, and enable their 
possessor to perform feats of strength and agility 
which appear marvellous to those who are deficient 
12 



102 INFLUENCE OF NERVES 

in either condition. The most successful wrestlers 
and gladiators among- the ancients seem to have 
owed their superiority chiefly to the possession of 
both endowments in a high degree ; and among the 
moderns, the most remarkable combination of the 
two qualities is exhibited by some of our harlequins, 
clowns, rope-dancers, and equestrian performers, 
and also by those who display their strength and 
power of equilibrium by balancing wheels, ladders, 
or other heavy bodies, on the chin ; and whose per- 
formances require from the small muscles of the 
jaw and neck a force of contraction which, when 
reduced to calculation, almost exceeds belief. Bel- 
zoni combined both conditions in a high degree. 

From the general resemblance which character- 
izes the different nerves, a similarity of function 
was long ascribed to them all, and no explanation 
could be given why one muscle sometimes received 
filaments from a variety of nervous trunks. Re- 
cently, however, the labours of Sir Charles Bell 
and Magendie have clearly established, that, in 
such cases, each nerve serves a distinct purpose, in 
combining the movements of the particular muscle 
with those of others necessary to effect a given end, 
— and that without this additional nerve such a com- 
bination could not have been produced. The mus- 
cular nerves must not be confounded with those 
which we have seen ramified on the skin for the 
purposes of sensation. The former are provided 
for the purposes of motion and not of feeling, and 
hence muscles maybe cut or injured with little pain, 
compared to what is felt by the skin. Weariness is 
the kind of sensation recognised by the muscular 
nerves. 

So uniformly is a separate instrument provided 
for every additional function, that there is every 
^reason to regard the muscular nerves, although run- 
ning in one sheath, as in reality double, and per- 
forming distinct functions. Sir Charles Bell Jia> 



ON MUSCULAR ACTION. 103 

.the merit of this discovery, if such it shall ulti- 
mately prove to be. In his work on the Nervous 
System, he endeavours to show, that one set of 
nervous fibres conveys the mandate from the brain 
to the muscle, and excites the contraction ; and that 
another conveys from the muscle to the brain the 
peculiar sense of the state of the muscle, by which 
we judge of the fitness of the degree of contraction 
which has been produced to accomplish the end 
desired, and which is obviously an indispensable 
piece of information to the mind in regulating the 
movements of the body. Sir Charles has shown, 
that many of the sensations supposed to be derived 
from the sense of touch and the skin, arise from the 
muscular sense, and are wholly imperceptible to 
the skin, without the co-operation of muscular con- 
traction. 

" The muscles have two nerves," says Sir Charles, 
u which fact has not hitherto been noticed, because 
they are commonly bound up together. But when- 
ever the nerves, as about the head, go in a separate 
course, we find that there is a sensitive nerve and a 
motor nerve distributed to the muscular fibre, and 
we have reason to conclude that those branches of 
the spinal nerves which go to the muscles consist of 
a motor and a sensitive filament. 

" It has been supposed hitherto, that the office of 
a muscular nerve is only to carry out the mandate 
of the will, and to excite the muscle to action, but 
this betrays a very inaccurate knowledge of the 
action of the muscular system ; for, before the mus- 
cular svstem can be controlled under the influence 
of the will, there must be a consciousness or know- 
ledge of the condition of the muscle. 

"When we admit that the various conditions of 
the muscle must be estimated or perceived, in order 
to be under the due control of the will, the natural 
question arises, Is that nerve which carries out the 
mandate of the will capable of conveying*, , at the 



104 NATURE OF MUSCULAR ACTION. 

same moment, an impression retrograde to the 
course of that influence which is going from the 
brain to the muscle 1 If we had no facts in anatomy 
to proceed upon, still reason would declare to us 
that the same filament of a nerve could not convey 
a motion, of whatever nature that motion may be, 
whether vibration or motion of spirits, in opposite 
directions at the same moment of time. 

" 1 find that, to the full operation of the muscular 
power, two distinct filaments of nerves are neces- 
sary, and that a circle is established between the 
sensorium and the muscle ; that one filament or 
single nerve carries the influence of the will towards 
the muscle, which nerve has no power to convey an 
impression back wards to the brain ; and that another 
nerve connects the muscle with the brain, and, act- 
ing as a sentient nerve, conveys the impression of 
the condition of the muscle to the mind, but has no 
operation in a direction outwards from the brain to- 
wards the muscle, and does not therefore excite the 
muscle, however irritated."* 

This consciousness of the state of the muscles, or 
muscular sense, as it may be truly called, is of great 
importance both to man and to animals, as it is 
necessarily by information thence derived that 
every subsequent exertion is directed and appor- 
tioned in intensity to the effort required to be made. 
If we had no such sense, the delicate and well- 
directed touches of the engraver, painter, and sculp- 
tor, or of the ingenious mechanic, would be at the 
mercy of hazard ; and a single disproportioned move- 
ment might ruin the successful labour of months, 
supposing success in reality to be compatible with 
chance. Without this sense, man could not deliber- 
ately proportion the muscular efforts to his real 
wants; 'and, even in walking, his gait would be un- 
steady and insecure, because there would be no 

* Bell's Anatomy seventh edition, vol. ii. p. 372. 



nature; of muscular action. .105 

harmony between effort and resistance. The loss 
of equilibrium, and the concussion and disturbance 
of the system consequent on taking, a false step, as 
it is called, are a specimen of what we would always 
'be subject to without the guidance of the muscular 
sense. When we imagine we have one step more of 
a stair to descend than really exists, we are placed 
nearly in the same circumstances as if we had no 
muscular sense to direct the extent of our intended 
movement; because the sense is then misled by an 
erroneous impression, and, accordingly, we make 
an effort grievously unsuited to the occasion: and 
yet, so habitually are we protected from this error 
by the assistance of the sense alluded to, and so 
little are we conscious of its operation, that it is only 
after mature reflection that we perceive the neces- 
sity of its existence- 
In chewing , our food, in turning the eyes towards 
an object looked at, in raising the hand to the mouth, 
and, in fact, in every variety of muscular movement 
which we perform, we are guided by the muscular 
sense in proportioning the effort to the resistance to 
be overcome ; and where this harmony is destroyed 
by disease, the extent of the service rendered us 
becomes more apparent. The shake of the arm and 
hand which we see in drunkards, and their conse- 
quent incapability of carrying the morsel directly to 
the mouth,, are examples of what would be of daily 
occurrence, unless we were directed, and assisted by 
a muscular sense. 

Life and the nervous stimulus are essential to 
muscular power. Separated from the body, and 
deprived of both, the muscle, which formerly con- 
tracted with a power equal to 100 pounds would be 
torn asunder by a weight of ten. This fact is of 
itself sufficient to give a tolerable notion of the ex- 
tent to which muscular contraction depends on 
other causes than the mere structure of the fleshy 
.fibres, for these continue the same after death, or 



106 EVILS RESULTING FROM INACTIVITY 

after the nervous communication has been sus- 
pended, as in recent paralysis ; and yet how feeble 
is the power of resistance which the muscle then 
possesses ! 

The required movement having been once effected 
Vy the nervous impulse stimulating the muscular fibre 
1o contraction, relaxation speedily follows, and is 
in its turn succeeded by a fresh contraction pro- 
portioned to the object in view. Muscular action, 
therefore, consists properly in alternate contraction and 
relaxation of the fleshy fibres. A state of permanent 
contraction is both unnatural and impossible ; and, 
accordingly, the most fatiguing muscular employ- 
ment to which a man can be subjected is that of 
remaining immoveable in any given attitude. To 
an unreflecting person it may seem a very easy and 
pleasant service to stand for half a day in the attitude 
of an Apollo or a gladiator, as a model to a statuary ; 
but, on trying it, he will find, to his astonishment, 
that stone-breaking or the tread-mill are pastimes in 
comparison: in the one case, the muscles which 
preserve the attitude are kept incessantly on the 
strain ; while in the other, they enjoy that play and 
variety of motion for which they were destined by 
nature. We may easily put the fact to the test, by 
attempting to hold the arm extended at right angles 
to the body for the short space of ten minutes. He 
whose muscles, if indeed capable of the exertion, do 
not feel sore with fatigue at the end of that time, 
may think himself peculiarly fortunate in being 
blessed with a powerful constitution. 

The principle just stated explains very obviously 
the weariness, debility, and injury to health which 
invariably follow forced confinement to one position 
or to one limited variety of movement, as is often 
witnessed in the education of young females. Al- 
ternate contraction and relaxation, or, in other 
words, exercise of the muscles which support the 
trunk of the body, are the only means which, ac- 



OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 107 

cording to the Creator's laws, are conducive to 
muscular development, and by which bodily strength 
and vigour can be secured. Instead of promoting 
such exercise, however, the prevailing system ot 
female education places the muscles of the trunk, in 
particular, under the worst possible circumstances, 
and renders their exercise nearly impossible. Left 
to its own weight, the body would fall to the ground, 
in obedience to the ordinary law of gravitation : in 
sitting and standing, therefore, as well as in walking, 
the position is preserved only by active muscular 
exertion. But if we confine ourselves to one atti- 
tude, such as that of sitting erect upon a chair — or, 
what is still worse, on benches without backs, as is 
the common practice in schools, — it is obvious that 
we place the muscles which support the spine and 
trunk in the very disadvantageous position of per- 
manent instead of alternate contraction ; which we 
have seen to be in reality more fatiguing and debili- 
tating to them than severe labour. Gkls thus re- 
strained daily for many successive hours invariably 
suffer — being deprived of the sports and exercise 
after school-hours which strengthen the muscles 
of boys, and enable them to withstand the oppres- 
sion. The muscles being thus enfeebled, they 
either lean over insensibly to one side, and thus 
contract curvature of the spine ; or, their weakness 
being perceived, they are forthwith cased in stiffer 
and stronger stays — that support being sought for in 
steel and whalebone which Nature intended they 
should obtain from the bones and muscles of their 
own bodies. The patient, finding the maintenance 
of an erect carriage (the grand object for which all 
the suffering is inflicted) thus rendered more easy 
at first welcomes the stays, and, like her teacher 
fancies them highly useful. Speedily, however, 
their effects show them to be the reverse of bene- 
ficial. The same want of varied motion, which was 
the prime cause of the muscular weakness, is stil\ 



108 RESULTING FROM INACTIVITY 

further aggravated by the tight pressure of the stay3 
interrupting the play of the muscles, and rendering 
them in a few months more powerless than ever. 
In spite, however, of the weariness and mischief 
which result from it, the same system is persevered 
in ; and, during the short time allotted to that nomi- 
nal exercise, the formal walk, the body is left almost 
as motionless as before, and only the legs are called 
into activity. The natural consequences of this 
treatment are, debility of the body, curvature of the 
spine, impaired digestion, and, from the diminished 
tone of all the animal and vital functions, general ill 
health : — and yet, while we thus set Nature and her 
laws at defiance, we presume to express surprise at 
the prevalence of female deformity and disease ! 

It would be easy, were it required, to prove that 
the picture here drawn is not over-charged. A 
single instance, from a note appended by Dr. Forbes 
to an excellent treatise on " Physical Education/' 
hy Dr. Barlow of Bath, will suffice. After copying 
the programme of a boarding-school for young 
ladies, which exhibits only one hour's exercise, con- 
sisting of a walk, arm in arm, on the high road, and 
that only when the weather is fine at the particular hour 
allotted to it, in contrast with nine hours at school or 
tasks, and three and a half at optional studies or 
works, — Dr. Forbes adds :— " That the practical re- 
sults of such an astounding regimen are by no 
means overdrawn in the preceding pages is suffi- 
ciently evinced by the following fact, a fact which, 
we will venture to say, may be verified by inspec- 
tion of thousands of boarding-schools in this coun- 
try. We lately visited in a large town a boarding- 
school containing forty girls ; and we learned on close 
and accurate inquiry, that there was not one of the girls 
who had been at the school two years (and the majority 
had been as lon%) that were not more or less crooked! 
fltfr patient was in this predicament ; and we could 
"rceiver (what all may perceive who meet that 



OF THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 109 

most melancholy of all processions, — a boarding- 
school of young ladies in their walk) that all her 
companions were pallid, sallow, and listless. We 
can assert, on the same authority of personal observa- 
tion, and on an extensive scale, that scarcely a single 
girl (more especially of the middle classes) that has been 
at a hoarding-school for two or three years, returns 
home with unimpaired health ; and for the truth of 
the assertion, we may appeal to every candid father, 
vs hose daughters have been placed in this situation."* 

Dr. Barlow justly remarks, that the superintend- 
ents of such schools cannot generally be blamed for 
indifference about the welfare of their pupils ; that 
most of them are extremely anxious to do their 
utmost to improve those under their charge ; and 
that it is ignorance alone which misleads them as to 
the proper means : he might have adverted also to 
the ignorance of parents, who insist on so many 
hours a day being dedicated to the study of accom- 
plishments for which their children have neither 
taste, capacity, nor use. From similar ignorance, 
the young girls in a public hospital in this country 
used to be shut up in the hall and school-room during 
play -hours, from November till March, and no romping 
or noise, or, in other words, no real play, relaxation, or 
exercise allowed ; and in 1830-31, from fear of typhus 
fever, they were seldom, if ever, out of doors, ex- 
cept at church, from November to April — than 
which a more efficient method of infringing all the 
laws of health could scarcely have been devised. 
Here, too, the object was unquestionably benevolent, 
but the method was radically bad ; and, in conse- 
quence, a great deal of sickness prevailed. 

The sedentary and unvaried occupations which 
follow each other for hours in succession in many 
of our schools have also been the cause of needless 
suffering to thousands ; and it is high time that a 

* Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine, article Physical Educ*.* 
tion ; vol. i. p. 698. 

K 



110 EVILS RESULTING FROM INACTIVITY. 

sound physiology should step in to root out all such 
erroneous and hurtful practices. Taken in con- 
nexion with the long confinement, the custom 
of causing the young to sit on benches without 
any support to the back, and without any variety 
of motion, cannot be too soon exploded. If 
the muscles of the spine were strengthened by 
the exercise which they require, but which is so 
generally denied, — and if the school employments 
w r ere varied or interrupted .at reasonable intervals, 
to admit of change of position and of motion, — no- 
thing could be better adapted for giving an easy and 
erect carriage than seats without backs, because the 
play of the muscles necessary for preserving the 
erect position would give them activity and vigour ; 
and, accordingly, the want is scarcely, if at all, felt 
in infant-schools, for the very reason that such va- 
riety of motion is, in them, carefully provided for. 
But it is a gross misconception to suppose that the 
same good result will follow the absence of support, 
when the muscles are weakened by constant strain- 
ing and want of play. The incessant and fidgety 
restlessness observable after the second or third 
hour of common school confinement shows the 
earnest call of nature for a little wholesome exer- 
cise ; and the quiet that ensues when it is granted 
indicates clearly enough that the restlessness 
springs even more from bodily than from mental 
weariness. It is, in fact, a degree of what we all 
feel when kept long standing on our feet, or sitting 
at a desk. We become wearied and uneasy from 
the continued strain on the same muscles, and feei 
at once relieved by a walk, a drive, or any change 
whatever. The same principle explains the fatigue 
so often complained of, as experienced in " shop- 
oing," or in an exhibition-room. We saunter about 
till the muscles become sore from the fatigue of 
being always in the same attitude, and we are re- 
freshed by a walk or a dance, or any thing which 
alters the position The same languor of the mus-. 



MENTAL AND MUSCULAR EXERCISE. Ill 

cles is felt after witnessing a pantomime, or other 
continuous spectacle, by which we are induced to 
keep the neck for a long time in a constrained and 
unvaried position. 

Instead, therefore, of so many successive hours 
being devoted to study and to books, the employ- 
ments of the young ought to be varied and inter- 
rupted by proper intervals of cheerful and exhilarat- 
ing exercise, such as is derived from games of dex- 
terity, which require the co-operation and society 
of companions. This is infinitely preferable to the 
solemn processions which are so often substituted 
for exercise, and which are hurtful, inasmuch as 
they delude parents and teachers into the notion 
that they constitute in reality that which they only 
counterfeit and supersede. We have already seen 
what an important part the mental stimulus and 
nervous impulse perform, in exciting, sustaining, 
and directing muscular activity ; and how difficult 
and inefficient muscular contraction becomes, when 
the mind, which directs it, is languid, or absorbed by 
other employments. The playful gambolling and 
varied movements which are so characteristic of 
the young of all animals, man not excepted, and 
which are at once so pleasing and so beneficial, show 
that, to render it beneficial in its fullest extent, 
nature requires amusement and sprightliness of 
mind to be combined with, and be the source of, 
muscular exercise ; and that, when deprived of this 
healthful condition, it is a mere evasion of her law, 
and is not followed by a tithe of the advantages 
resulting from its real fulfilment. The buoyancy 
of spirit and comparative independence enjoyed by 
boys when out of school prevent them suffering so 
much from this cause as girls do ; but the injury 
inflicted on both is the more unpardonable, on ac- 
count of the ease with which it might be entirely 
avoided 

Facts illustrative of the influence of mental, co- 
operating with and aiding muscular, activity, must 



112 ADVANTAGE OF COMBINING MENTAL 

be famHiar to every one ; but as the principle on 
which they depend is not sufficiently attended to, 
I shall add a few additional remarks. 

Everybody knows how wearisome and disagree- 
able it is to saunter along, without having some ob- 
ject to attain ; and how listless and unprofitable a 
walk taken against the inclination and merely for 
exercise is, compared to the same exertion made in 
pursuit of an object on which we are intent. The 
difference is simply, that, in the former case, the 
muscles are obliged to work without that full ner- 
vous impulse which nature has decreed to be essen- 
tial to their healthy and energetic action ; and that, 
in the latter, the nervous impulse is in full and har- 
monious operation. The great superiority of active 
sports, as a means of exercise, over mere measured 
movements, is referable to the same principle. 
Every kind of youthful play interests and excites 
the mind, as well as occupies the body ; and by thus 
placing the muscles in the best position for whole- 
some and beneficial exertion, enables them to act 
without fatigue, for a length of time which, if occu- 
pied in mere walking for exercise, would utterly ex- 
haust their powers. 

The elastic spring, bright eye, and cheerful glow 
of beings thus excited form a perfect contrast to 
the spiritless and inanimate aspect of many of our 
boarding-school processions ; and the results in 
point of health and activity are not less different. 
So powerful, indeed, is the nervous stimulus, that 
examples have occurred of strong mental emo- 
tions having instantaneously given life and vigour 
to paralytic limbs. This has happened in cases of 
shipwrecks, fires, and sea-fights, and shows how in- 
dispensable it is to have the mind engaged and inter- 
ested along with the muscles. Many a person who 
feels ready to drop from fatigue, after a merely me- 
chanical walk, would have no difficulty in subse- 
quently undergoing much continuous exertion in 
active play or in dancing ; and it is absurd, there « 



WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 115 

fore, to say that exercise is not beneficial when in 
reality proper exercise has not been tried. 

The amount of bodily exertion of which soldiers 
are capable is well known to be prodigiously in- 
creased by the mental stimulus of pursuit, of fight- 
ing, or of victory. In the retreat of the French 
from Moscow, for example, when no enemy was 
near, the soldiers became depressed in courage and 
enfeebled in body, and nearly sank to the earth 
through exhaustion and cold ; but no sooner did the 
report of the Russian guns sound in their ears, or 
the gleam of their bayonets flash in their eyes, than 
new life seemed to pervade them, and they wielded 
powerfully the arms which, a few moments before 
they could scarcely drag along the ground. No 
sooner, however, was the enemy repulsed, and the 
nervous stimulus which animated their muscles 
withdrawn, than their feebleness returned. Dr. 
Sparrman, in like manner, after describing the fatigue 
and exhaustion which he and his party endured in 
heir travels at the Cape, adds, — " yet, what even 
now appears to me a matter of wonder is, that as 
soon as we got a glimpse of the gam.e, all this languor 
left us in an instant." On the principle already men- 
tioned, this result is perfectly natural, and in strict 
harmony with what we observe in sportsmen, crick- 
eters, golfers, skaters, and others, who, moved by a 
mental aim, are able to undergo a much greater 
amount of bodily labour than men of stronger mus- 
cular frames, actuated by no excitement of mind or 
vigorous nervous impulse. We have heard an in- 
telligent engineer remark the astonishment often 
felt by country people, at finding him and his town 
companions, although more slightly made, withstand 
the fatigues and exposure of a day's surveying better 
than themselves ; but, said he, they overlooked the 
fact, that our employment gives to the mind as well 
as to the body a stimulus which they were entirely 
without, as thei** only object was to ufiord us bodily 
F3 



I 14 ADVANTAGE OF COMBINING MENTAL 

aid, when required, in dragging the chains or carry- 
ing our instruments. The conversation of a friend 
is, in the same way, a powerful alleviator of the 
fatigue of walking. 

The same important principle was implied in the 
advice which the Spectator tells us was given by a 
physician to one of the Eastern kings, when he brought 
him a racket, and told him that the remedy was 
concealed in the handle, and could act upon him only 
by passing into the palms of his hands when engaged 
in playing with it, and that as soon as perspiration 
was induced, he might desist for the time, as that 
would be a proof of the medicine being received 
into the general system. The effect, we are told, 
was marvellous ; and, looking to the principle just 
stated, to the cheerful nervous stimulus arising 
from the confident expectation of a cure, and to the 
consequent advantages of exercise thus judiciously 
managed, we have no reason to doubt that the fable 
is in perfect accordance w T ith nature. 

The story of an Englishman who conceived him- 
self so ill as to be unable to stir, but who was pre- 
vailed upon by his medical advisers to go down from 
London to consult an eminent physician at Inver- 
ness who did not exist, may serve as another illus- 
tration. The stimulus of expecting the means of 
cure from the northern luminary was sufficient to 
enable the patient not only to bear, but to reap 
benefit from, the exertion of making the journey 
down ; and his wrath at finding no such person at 
Inverness, and perceiving that it was all a trick, sus- 
tained him in returning, so that on his arrival at 
home he was nearly cured. Hence also the supe- 
riority of battledore and shuttlecock, and similar 
games, which require society and some mental 
stimulus, over mere listless exercise. It is, in fact, 
a positive misnomer to call a solemn procession 
exercise. Naturp will not be cheated ; and tho 



WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 115 

healthful results of complete cheerful exertion will 
never be obtained where the nervous impulse which 
animates the muscles is denied. 

It must not, however, be supposed that a walk 
simply for the sake of exercise can never be bene- 
ficial. If a person be thoroughly satisfied that ex- 
ercise is requisite, and perfectly willing, or rather 
desirous, to obey the call which demands it, he is 
from that very circumstance in a fit state for de- 
riving benefit from it, because the desire then be- 
comes a sufficient nervous impulse, and one in 
perfect harmony with the muscular action. It is 
only where a person goes to walk, either from a 
sense of duty or at the command of another, but 
against his own inclination, that exercise is com- 
paratively useless. 

The advantages of thus combining harmonious 
mental excitement with muscular activity have not 
escaped the sagacity of the late Dr. Armstrong, 
who thus notices them in his frequently reprinted 
poem on the Art of Preserving Health, but without 
giving the physiological explanation : — 

In whatever you sweat 
Indulge your taste. Some love the manly toils. 
The tennis some, and some the graceful dance; 
Others more hardy range the purple heath, 
Or naked stubble, where from field to field 
The sounding covies urge their lab'ring flight, 
Eager amid the rising cloud to pour 
The gun's unerring thunder ; and there are 
Whom still the meed of the green archer charms. 
He chuses best whose labour entertains 
- His vacant fancy most ; The toil you HATE 

Fatigues you soon, and scarce improves your limbs. 

Book III. 

This constitution of Nature, whereby a mental 
impulse is required to excite and direct muscular 
action, points to the propriety of teaching the young 
to observe and examine the qualities and arrange- 
ments of external objects. The most pleasing and 



118 ADVANTAGE OF COMBINING MENTAL 

healthful exercise may be thus secured, and every 
step be made to add to useful knowledge and to in- 
dividual enjoyment. The botanist, the geologist, 
and the natural historian experience pleasures in 
their walks and rambles of which, from disuse 
of their eyes and observing powers, the multitude 
is deprived. This truth is acted upon by many 
teachers in German)^. In our own country, too, it 
is beginning to be felt, and one of the professed 
objects of infant education is to correct the omis- 
sion. It must not, however, be supposed that any 
kind of mental activity will give the necessary 
stimulus to muscular action, and that, in walking, it 
will do equally well to read a book or carry on a 
train of abstract thinking, as to seek the necessary 
nervous stimulus in picking up plants, hammering 
rocks, or engaging in games. This were a great 
mistake ; for in such cases the nervous impulse is 
opposed rather than favourable to muscular action. 
Wherever the mind is absorbed in reading or in 
abstract speculation, the active will to set the 
muscles in motion must necessarily be proportion- 
ally weakened, and the action of the muscles be re- 
duced to that inanimate kind I have already con- 
demned as almost useless. For true and beneficial 
exercise, there must be harmony of action between the 
moving power and the part to be moved. The will and 
the muscle must be both directed to the same end and at 
the same time, otherwise the effect will be imperfect. 
The foree exerted by strong muscles, animated by 
strong nervous impulse or will, is prodigiously 
greater than when the impulse is weak ; and as 
man was made not to do two things at once, but to 
direct his whole powers to the one thing he is per- 
forming at the time, he has ever excelled most when 
he followed this law of his nature. 

When a physician urges the necessity of exercise, 
it is very usual for him to be told by persons of an 
indolent or sedentary habit, that even a short walk 



WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 117 

fatigues them so much as to render them unfit for 
every thing for some days after, and that they are 
never so well as when allowed to remain in the 
house. But if, in perfect reliance on the regularity 
of the Creator's laws, we seek out the cause of this 
apparent exception, we shall almost uniformly find, 
that, instead of beginning with a degree of exertion 
proportioned to the weakened state of the system, 
such persons have (under the notion that it was not 
worth while to go out for a short time) forced their 
muscles, already weakened by inactivity and con- 
finement, to perform a walk to which only regularly 
exercised muscles were adequate. The amount 
of exertion which is always followed by exhaustion 
is thus, through mere impatience and "ignorance, 
substituted for that lesser degree which always 
gives strength; and because the former is followed 
by headache and debility, it is argued that the latter 
also must be prejudicial! Many sensible people 
delude themselves by such puerile plausibilities as 
this ; and it is only by the diffusion of a knowledge 
of the laws of exercise as part of a useful educa- 
tion that individuals can be enabled to avoid such 
mistakes. 

The effects of exercise upon the organs employed 
are very remarkable, and useful to be known. When 
any living part is called into activity, the processes 
of waste and renovation, which are incessantly 
going on in every part of the body, proceed with 
greater rapidity, and in due proportion to each 
other. To meet this condition, the vessels and 
nerves become excited to higher action, and the 
supply of arterial or nutritive blood and of nervous 
energy becomes greater. When the active exercise 
ceases, the excitement thus given to the vital func- 
tions subsides, and the vessels and nerves return at 
length to their original state. 

If the exercise be resumed frequently, and at 
moderate intervals, the increased action of the blood- 



118 ADVANTAGE OF COMBINING MENTAL 

vessels and nerves becomes more permanent, and 
does not sink to the same low degree as formerly ; 
nutrition rather exceeds waste, and the part gains con- 
sequently in size, vigour, and activity. But if the ex- 
ercise be resumed too often, or be carried too far, 
so as to fatigue and exhaust the vital powers of the 
part, the results become reversed: waste then ex- 
ceeds nutrition, and a loss of volume and of power 
takes place, accompanied with a painful sense of 
weariness, fatigue, and exhaustion. When, on the 
other hand, exercise is altogether refrained from, 
the vital functions decay from the want of their 
requisite stimulus ; little blood is sent to the part, 
and nutrition and strength fail in equal proportion. 
A limb which has been long in disuse becomes 
weak and shrivelled from this cause, and its muscles 
present an unusual paleness and flabbiness, strongly 
contrasting with the florid redness and rigid fulness 
of the muscles of a well-exercised limb. 

Even sensation gives a faithful notice of these 
changes, and therefore serves as a guide to exer- 
cise. When muscular employment is neglected, 
the body becomes weak, dull, and unfit for powerful 
efforts, and all the functions languish. When exer- 
cise is taken regularly and in due proportion, a 
grateful sense of activity and comfort prevails, and 
we feel ourselves fit for every duty, both mental 
and bodily. Lastly, when we are subjected to ex- 
cessive exertion, a painful sense of weariness and 
exhaustion ensues, which is not relieved by rest, 
and which for a long time prevents sleep. A person 
who has greatly over-fatigued himself in walking, 
for example, is feeble and restless ; and, on lying 
down, either cannot sleep at all, and rises in the 
morning weak in body and languid in mind, or has 
uneasy and disturbed sleep till the exhaustion is 
partially recovered from, after which he may enjoy 
sound and refreshing repose. 

From this exposition of the effects of exercise in 



WITH MUSCULAR EXERCISE. US 

its different stages, it becomes easy to deduce 
rules applicable to all, for promoting the healthy 
development of the muscular system, and to trace 
the errors by which indolent people are accustomed 
to maintain that exercise is hurtful to their consti- 
tutions. The second stage of exercise, or that in 
tvhich, by its frequency, moderation, and regularity, 
nutrition and vigour are preserved at their highest 
pitch, is of course to be aimed at ; but the quantity 
of exercise which corresponds to it must vary ac- 
cording to the constitution and previous habits of 
the individual, as is well exemplified in training for 
pedestrian feats, for the ring and for racing. The 
assertion made by many, that exercise hurts them, 
arises entirely from overlooking this circumstance. 
A person accustomed to daily activity will feel 
invigorated by a walk of four or five miles in the 
open air ; whereas the same distance will weaken 
another, who has not been in the habit of walking 
at all. But instead of inferring from this, as is often 
done, that exercise in the open air is positively 
hurtful to the latter, reason and experience coincide 
in telling us, that he has erred only by exceeding 
the powers of his system, and that to acquire 
strength and activity, he ought to have begun with 
one mile, and to have gradually extended his walk 
in proportion as the muscles became invigorated by 
the increased nutrition consequent on well-regulated 
exercise. A person recovering from fever begins 
by walking across his room perhaps ten times in a 
day, and gradually extends to twenty or thirty 
times, till he gains strength to go into the open air. 
On going out, a walk of ten minutes proves suffi- 
cient for him at first, but by degrees his strength 
and flesh increase, and his exercise is prolonged till 
he arrives at his usual standard. Such is the order 
of Nature ; but many sedentary people have no 
patience for such slow progress, and when urged to 
take exercise, they grudge the trouble of going out 



120 BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 

for a short time, and think that, if a walk of half a 
mile does them good, one of a whole mile will do 
more ; and when they suffer from the error, they 
shelter their ignorance under the general assump- 
tion that exercise does not agree with them ! And 
the same persons who argue thus would think 
themselves entitled to laugh at the Irishman who, 
finding himself relieved by five pills taken at night, 
inferred that he would necessarily be cured if he 
took the whole box full at once, and on doing so 
narrowly escaped with his life. 

From these principles it follows, first, that, to be 
beneficial, exercise ought always to be proportioned 
to the strength and constitution, and not carried 
beyond the point, easily discoverable by experience, 
at which waste begins to succeed nutrition, and ex- 
haustion to take the place of strength : secondly, that 
it ought to be regularly resumed after a sufficient 
interval of rest, in order to ensure the permanence 
of the healthy impulse given to the vital powers 
of the muscular system : and, lastly, that it is of the 
utmost consequence to join with it a mental and 
nervous stimulus. Those who go out only once in 
four or five days are always at work but never advan- 
cing; for the increased action induced by the pre- 
vious exercise has fully subsided long before the 
succeeding effort is begun : and so far as increased 
nutrition and greater aptitude for exertion are con- 
cerned, no progress whatever is made. 



EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 121 



CHAPTER V. 

Effects of Muscqlar Exercise on the principal Functions of t e 
Body explained — Shampooing a Substitute for Exercise- 
Evils of deficient Exercise — Best Time for taking Exeicise— 
Always to be taken in the open Air — Different Kinds- 
Walking — Riding — Dancing — Gymnastics — Fencing — Shut 
tlecock — Reading aloud — Case illustrative of the Principles 
of Exercise — Involuntary Muscles. 

We have seen that exercise is necessary for de- 
veloping and improving the health of the muscular 
system; but it still remains for us to explain how it 
acts in imparting tone and strength to the rest of the 
body, and to mention the circumstances by which 
its employment ought to be regulated. 

Man being intended for a life of activity, all his 
functions are constituted by Nature to fit him for 
this object, and they never go on so successfully as 
when his external situation is such as to demand the 
regular exercise of all his organs. It is, accordingly, 
curious to observe the admirable manner in which 
each is linked in its action and sympathies with the 
rest. When the muscular system, for example, is 
duly exercised, increased action in its vessels and 
nerves takes place, as already observed ; but the 
effect is not by any means limited to the mere organs 
of motion. The principal blood-vessels in all parts 
of the body lie imbedded among muscles, for both 
the protection and aid which the latter afford them. 
Every contraction of the muscles compresses the 
diameter of the vessels ; and as the blood contained 
in them cannot retrograde in its course, it is pro- 
pelled in the arteiies from the heart towards the ex- 
L 



122 EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 

treme parts, and in the veins from the latter towards 
the heart, with greater force and velocity than before. 
This will be better understood on 
examining the annexed engraving 
of the blood-vessels of the arm, 
copied from Fyfe's Anatomy. 
The letters A, B, C, D, E, repre- 
sent the principal muscles of the 
arm; and F, G, H, I, K, M, N, 
those of the forearm ; but as the 
preparation is dried, and the mus- 
cles consequently much shrunk, 
they do not appear in their natural 
situation. The letters in italics 
refer to the humeral artery, which 
is seen dividing at the elbow into 
two branches. The one, called 
the radial artery, passes on the 
outer side of the forearm towards 
the thumb, and is the branch in 
which the pulse is generally felt ; 
the other, called the ulnar, passes 
along the inner side of the fore- 
arm. 

In the natural state, these blood- 
vessels are covered and protected 
in almost their whole course by 
the adjacent muscles. In conse- 
quence of this position, the mus- 
cles cannot contract without at 
the same time compressing the blood-vessels, and 
propelling their contents. The assistance afforded 
to the circulation of the blood by this arrangement 
is familiarly exemplified in the operation of blood- 
letting from the arm. When the blood stops or 
flows slowly, it is customary to put a ball or other 
hard body into the hand of the patient, and desire him 
to squeeze and roll it about. The success of this 
action depends simply on the muscles of the arm 




•EFFECTS OF MUSCULAR EXERCISE. 123 

compressing the interjacent blood-vessels, and forc- 
ing onwards the current of the contained blood by 
their successive contractions. Muscular action is, 
indeed, one of the powers provided for effecting a 
regular circulation. And hence when its assistance 
is neglected, as it is by those who take no active 
exercise, the blood begins to flow less freely, till at 
last it finds some difficulty in returning against the 
law of gravitation from the depending parts, which 
\hen gradually swell. People engaged for years 
in sedentary professions are thus very subject to 
varicose or dilated veins and swelled feet. 

The chain of connexion among all the living func- 
tions is nowhere more visible than in this relation 
between muscular exercise and the circulation of 
the blood. Action requires the presence of arterial 
blood ; and in the case of the muscles, the very cir- 
cumstance of their being active favours the circula- 
tion and increases the supply. This increase, in its 
turn, enables the parts to which it is sent to act with 
greater energy and effect, and the augmented action 
is attended by corresponding waste and exhalation. 
To replenish the blood thus exhausted of its nutri- 
tive principle, a greater quantity of food is required ; 
and, to prompt us to attend to this condition, the 
appetite becomes keener and more imperative, and 
the powers of digestion proportionally vigorous. 
The food taken is more speedily converted into 
chyle, its absorption from the surface of the intes- 
tines and transmission into the circulating current 
more rapid ; and that the blood thus improved may 
be properly and quickly animalized in the laboratory 
of the lungs, respiration becomes deeper and more 
frequent, thus admitting a larger quantity of air and 
freer circulation through them than before ; and the 
blood, thus renewed and re-endowed with the pabu- 
lum of life, imparts fresh nutriment and vigour to 
all the organs of the body, and fits them for that 
active exertion which the proper discharge of his 



124 SHAMPOOING A SUBSTITUTE FOR EXERCISE. 

duties imperatively requires from every member of 
the human race. 

Considered in this point of view, the hurried 
breathing and quickened circulation, of which we 
are so apt to complain when engaged in muscular 
exercise, instead of being evils, are, in fact, the 
beneficent means by which we become fitted to con- 
tinue the exertion. Without a more than usually 
rapid flow of blood to the part in use, the necessary 
stimulus to its vessels and nerves could not take 
place, and its action could not be sustained. But 
were the blood-vessels not so situated among the 
muscles as to have their contents propelled more 
quickly by the compression to which every muscular 
contraction necessarily subjects them, it is obvious 
that no increase of circulation could take place. 
And if respiration, on the other hand, were not to 
become accelerated, so as to oxygenate the venous 
blood more quickly as it arrived at the lungs, it is 
obvious, that the requisite stimulus must again have 
failed, as, in that case, the blood must either have 
accumulated in the lungs and caused death, or have 
passed through them imperfectly prepared, and ex 
tinguished life more slowly, but not less certainly. 

It is from this effect of muscular compression in 
promoting the flow of blood through the arteries and 
veins, that shampooing, which consists in a kind of 
kneading of the flesh, is so successfully resorted to 
in the warm climates of the East, and among the 
richer class of invalids in our own country, as a 
substitute for active exercise. Shampooing fur- 
nishes from without that impulse to the circulation 
which the Creator had destined it to receive from 
active muscular exertion ; and the principle of its 
action being the same, we cannot wonder that it 
should prove indisputably useful in promoting circu- 
lation, strength, and nutrition, in cases where active 
exercise cannot be enjoyed. 

It is a common observation, that sedentary persons 



EVILS OF DEFICIENT EXERCISE. 125 

are habitually subject to costiveness and its attend- 
ant evils. The reason is the same. In the natural 
state, the contents of the bowels are propelled partly 
by the successive contractions of the muscles which 
form the walls of the belly, and separate that cavity 
from the chest ; and partly by the contraction of the 
muscular fibres, which constitute an important part 
of the structure of the intestinal canal. If, however, 
exercise be refrained from, and the same position be 
preserved for many hours a day, as in sitting at a 
desk, the bowels are necessarily deprived of one im- 
portant source of power ; and thus weakened, they 
are unable to act upon and propel their contents 
with the same regularity as when assisted by exer- 
cise. A slowness of action ensues, which no course 
of medicine, and scarcely any modification of diet, 
can overcome, so long as sedentary habits are in- 
dulged in ; but which also may often be relieved by 
daily pressing over the region of the abdomen with 
a kind of kneading motion, imitating, though feebly, 
the effects of muscular action. Females suffer much 
from intestinal debility caused by sedentary habits. 

The evils arising from deficiency of exercise to all 
the functions of the mind and body will now be 
equally evident and intelligible, for they are the con- 
verse of what we have seen to be the advantages of 
adequate exercise. The circulation, from want of 
stimulus, becomes languid, especially in the extreme 
vessels ; the feebleness of action occasions little 
waste of materials; the appetite and digestion con- 
sequently become weak ; respiration heavy and im- 
perfect ; and the blood so ill-conditioned, that, when 
distributed through the body, it proves inadequate to 
communicate the stimulus requisite for healthy and 
vigorous action. The concatenation of causes and 
consequences thus exhibited cannot fail, when' the 
principle connecting them is perceived, to interest 
and instruct every thinking mind. 

The time at which exercise ought to be taken is 
L2 



126 BEST TIME FOR TAKING EXERCISE. 

of some consequence in obtaining- from it beneficial 
results. Those who are in perfect health may en- 
gage in it at almost any hour, except immediately 
after a full meal ; but those who are not robust 
ought to confine their hours' of exercise within nar- 
rower limits. To a person in full vigour, a good 
walk in the country before breakfast may be highly 
beneficial and exhilarating; while, to an invalid or 
delicate person, it will prove more detrimental than 
useful, and will induce a sense of weariness, which 
will spoil the pleasure of the whole day. Many are 
deceived by the current poetical praises of the fresh- 
ness of morning, and hurt themselves in summer by 
seeking health in untimely promenades. 

In order to be beneficial, exercise must be resorted 
to only when the system is sufficiently vigorous to 
be able to meet it. This is the case after a lapse 
of from two to four or five hours after a moderate 
meal, and, consequently, the forenoon is the best 
time. If exercise be delayed till some degree of 
exhaustion from the want of food has occurred, it 
speedily dissipates instead of increases the strength 
which remains, and impairs instead of promotes di- 
gestion. The result is quite natural ; for exercise 
of every kind causes increased action and waste in 
the organ ; and if there be not materials and vigour 
enough in the general system to keep up that action 
and supply the waste, nothing but increased debility 
can reasonably be expected. 

For the same reason, exercise immediately before 
■meals, unless of a very gentle description, is injuri- 
ous, and an interval of rest ought always to inter- 
vene. Muscular action causes an afflux of blood and 
nervous energy to the surface and extremities, and 
if food be swallowed whenever the activity ceases, 
and before time has been allowed for a different 
distribution of the vital powers to take place, the 
stomach is taken at disadvantage, and, from want 
of the necessary action in its vessels and nerves, is 



BEST TIME FOR TAKING EXERCISE. 127 

-tillable to carry on digestion with success. This is 
very obviously the case where the exercise has been 
severe or protracted, and the consequence is so well 
known, that it is an invariable rule in the manage- 
ment of horses, never to feed them immediately 
after work, but always to allow them an interval of 
rest proportioned to the previous labour. Even in- 
stinct would lead to this conduct, for appetite revives 
after repose. 

Exercise ought to be equally avoided immediately 
after a heavy meal. In such circumstances, the func* 
tions of the digestive organs are in their highest state 
of activity ; and if the muscular system be then called 
into considerable action, the withdrawal of the vital 
stimuli of the blood and nervous influence from the 
stomach to the extremities is sufficient almost to 
stop the digestive process. This is no supposition, 
but demonstrated fact; and accordingly, there is a 
natural and marked aversion to active pursuits after 
a full meal. In a dog, which had hunted for an hour 
or two directly after eating, digestion was found on 
dissection to have scarcely begun ; while in another 
dog, fed at the same time, and left at home, digestion 
was nearly completed. 

A mere stroll, which requires no exertion, and 
does not fatigue, will not be injurious before or after 
eating; but exercise beyond this hmit is hurtful at 
such times. All, therefore, whose object is to im- 
prove or preserve health, and whose occupations are 
in their own power, ought to arrange these, so as to 
observe faithfully this important law, for they will 
otherwise deprive themselves of most of the benefits 
resulting from exercise. 

When we know that we shall be forced to exertion 
soon after eating, we ought to make a very moderate 
meal, to avoid setting the stomach and muscles at 
variance with each other, and exciting feverish dis- 
turbance. In travelling by a stage-coach, where no 
repose is allowed, this precaution is invaluable. If 



128 BEST TIME FOR TAKING EXERCISE. 

we eat heartily as appetite suggests, and then enter 
the coach, restlessness, flushing, and fatigue are in- 
evitable ; whereas, by eating sparingly, the journey 
may be continued for two or three days and nights, 
with less weariness than is felt during one-fourth of 
the time under full feeding. I observed this when 
travelling as an invalid on rather low diet, and was 
surprised to find myself less fatigued at the end of 
seventy-two hours than I had previously been when 
in health and living fully, with half the journey ; and 
1 have heard the same remark made by others, also 
from experience. 

It is the custom in many families and schools, 
apparently for the purpose of saving time, to take 
young people out to walk about the close of the day, 
because there is not light enough to do any thing in 
the house. Nothing can be more injudicious than 
this plan, for, in the first place, exercise once a day 
is very insufficient for the young, and even sup- 
posing that it were enough, the air is then more 
loaded with moisture, colder, and proportionably 
more unhealthy than at any other time ; and the ab- 
sence of the beneficial stimulus of the solar light 
diminishes not a little its invigorating influence. 
For those, consequently, who are so little out of 
doors as the inmates of boarding-schools and chil- 
dren living in towns, and who are all at the period 
of growth, the very best times of the day ought to 
be chosen for exercise, particularly as in-door occu- 
pations are, after nightfall, more in accordance with 
the order of nature. 

By devoting part of the forenoon also to exercise, 
another obvious advantage is gained. If the weather 
prove unfavourable at an early hour, it may clear 
up in time to admit of going out later in the day; 
whereas, if the afternoon alone be allotted to exer- 
cise, and the weather proves bad, the day is alto- 
gether lost. In winter, indeed, it is not unusual for 
girls to be thus confined from Sunday to Sunday, 



BEST TIME FOR TAKING EXERCISE. 129 

simply because the weather is rainy at the regular hour 
of going out. When the muscular system is duly ex- 
ercised in the open air early in the day, the power of 
mental application is considerably increased; while, 
by delaying till late, the efficiency of the whole pre- 
vious mental labour is diminished by the restless crav- 
ing for motion which is evinced by the young of all 
animals ; and which, when unsatisfied, distracts at- 
tention, and leads to idleness in school. It would 
be well to copy in this respect the practice adopted 
in the infant-schools, where the children are turned 
out to play for a few minutes, as soon as the wan- 
dering of mind and restlessness of body indicate that 
the one has been too much and the other too little 
exerted. After such an interval, work goes on 
briskly again, and every one is alive. 

To render exercise as beneficial as possible, par- 
ticularly in educating the young, it ought always to 
be taken in the open air, and to be of a nature to 
occupy the mind as well as the body. Social play 
and active sports of every kind, cricket, bowls, shut- 
tlecock, the ball, archery, quoits, hide-and-seek, and 
similar recreations well-known to the young, are in- 
finitely preferable to regular and unmeaning walks, 
and tend in a much higher degree to develop and 
strengthen the bodily frame, and to secure a straight 
spine and an erect and firm but easy and graceful 
carriage. A formal walk is odious and useless to 
many girls, who would be delighted and benefited 
by spending two or three hours a day in spirited 
exercise. 

Let those mothers who are afraid to trust to 
Nature for strengthening and developing the limbs 
and spines of their daughters attend to facts, and 
their fears will vanish. It is notorious that a ma- 
jority of those girls who, in opposition to the laws 
of nature, are encased in stays, and get insufficient 
exercise, become deformed ; an occurrence which 
is, on the other hand, comparatively rare in boys, 



130 DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 

who are left, in conformity with the designs of na- 
ture, to acquire strength and symmetry from free 
and unrestricted muscular action. In a seminary 
for young ladies, for example, containing forty 
pupils, it was discovered on examination, by Dr. 
Forbes, that only two out of those who had been resi- 
dent in it for two years had straight spines ; while 
out of an equal number of boys, imperfect as their 
exercise often is, it would be difficult to discover as 
many whose spines were not straight. Here, then, 
is ample proof that stays and absence of exercise, 
so far from contributing to an elegant carriage, are 
directly opposed to its acquisition ; and that the 
absence of stays and indulgence in exercise, even 
when not carried so far as the wants of the system 
require, so far from being hurtful to the spine, con- 
tribute powerfully to its strength and security. Yet 
such is the dominion of prejudice and habit, that, 
with these results meeting our observation in every 
quarter, we continue to make as great a distinction 
in the physical education of the two sexes in early 
life, as if they belonged to different orders of beings, 
and were constructed on such opposite principles, 
that what was to benefit the one must necessarily 
hurt the other. 

Different kinds of exercise suit different constitu- 
tions. The object, of course, is to employ all the 
muscles of the body, and to strengthen those es- 
pecially which are too weak ; and hence, exercise 
ought to be often varied, and always adapted to the 
peculiarities of individuals. Speaking generally, 
walking agrees well with everybody, but as it exer- 
cises chiefly the lower limbs and the muscles of the 
loins, and affords little scope for the play of the 
arms and muscles of the chest, it is insufficient of 
itself to constitute adequate exercise ; and hence 
the advantage of combining with it movements per- 
formed by the upper half of the body, as in many 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 131 

useful sports, and in fishing*. Such exercises have 
the additional advantage of animating the mind, and, 
by increasing the nervous stimulus, making exertion 
easy, pleasant, and invigorating. 

Pedestrian excursions, in pursuit of mineralogi- 
cal or botanical specimens, or in search of scenery, 
combine in their results all the advantages which 
well-conducted exercise is capable of yielding, and 
are much resorted to in the German seminaries, for 
the purpose of developing the mental and bodily 
powers. In summer, walking excursions to the 
Highlands of Scotland are common among the youth 
of our cities, and when proportioned in extent to 
the constitutions and previous habits of the individ- 
uals, nothing can be more advantageous and delight- 
ful. But not a season passes in which health is not 
sacrificed and life lost by young men imprudently 
exceeding their natural powers, and undertaking 
journeys and excursions for which they are totally 
unfitted. It is no unusual thing for youths still 
weak from rapid growth, and perhaps accustomed 
to the desk, to set out in high spirits at the rate of 
twenty-five or thirty miles a day, on a walking ex- 
cursion, and (in consequence of carrying exercise, 
for days in succession, to the third degree, or that 
in which waste exceeds nutrition) to come home so 
much worn out and debilitated that they never re- 
cover. Young soldiers, whose growth is scarcely 
finished, are well known to die in great numbers, 
when exposed to long and heavy marches, particu- 
larly when food is at the same time scanty. Even 
a single day of excessive fatigue will sometimes 
suffice to produce permanent bad health; and I 
know one instance of a strong young man, who 
brought on a severe illness and permanent debility, 
by a sudden return to hard exercise for a single day, 
although some years before he had been accus- 
tomed to every species of muscular exertion in run- 
ning, leaping, and swimming. Many young men 



132 DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 

hurry on the premature development of consump- 
tion by excessive fatigue during the shooting sea- 
son, in cases where, by prudent management, they 
might have escaped it for years, if not altogether. 
The principle already laid down, of not exceeding 
the point at which exercise promotes nutrition and in- 
creases strength, will serve as a safe guide on all oc- 
casions, and indicate the rate at which it may be 
extended. Old sportsmen know the rule by expe- 
rience, and generally prepare themselves for the 
moors by several weeks of previous training. 

Since writing the preceding remarks, I have been 
made acquainted by a friend with a melancholy but 
instructive proof of their general accuracy. He 
says, " A young gentleman, whom I knew, was 
employed as a clerk in one of the banks in Edin- 
burgh. He was closely confined to his desk during 
the summer, and, towards the end of July, had be- 
come weak and emaciated, from deficient exercise 
in the open air. His strength continued to decline 
till Friday the 12th of August, when he went to 
shoot on Falkirk Moor. On Friday and Saturday he 
was much fatigued by excessive and unusual exer- 
tion, and on Sunday evening was feverish and heated, 
and perspired very much during the night. In this 
condition he rose about three or four o'clock on 
Monday morning, and returned to Edinburgh on the 
top of a coach. When he reached home he felt 
very unwell, but went to the bank. At two o'clock 
he became so sick as to be unable to sit at his desk. 
He was then bled by a medical gentleman, but with- 
out much effect ; and after passing three months in 
a feverish and sleepless condition, he died in the 
beginning of November. He was previously of a 
healthy constitution." It is more than probable that 
this young man's life became a sacrifice to his igno- 
rance of the structure and functions of the human 
body. 

Riding is a most salubrious exercise, and, where 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 133 

the lungs are weak, possesses a great advantage 
over walking ; as it does not hurry the breathing. 
It calls into more equal play all the muscles of the 
body, and at the same time engages the mind in the 
management of the animal, and exhilarates by the 
free contact of the air and more rapid change of 
scene. Even at a walking pace, a gentle but uni- 
versal and constant action of the muscles is required 
to preserve the seat, and adapt the rider's position 
to the movements of the horse ; and this kind of 
muscular action is extremely favourable to the 
proper and equal circulation of the blood through 
the extreme vessels, and to the prevention of its 
undue accumulation in the central organs. The 
gentleness of the action admits of its being kept up 
without accelerating respiration, and enables a deli- 
cate person to reap the combined advantages of the 
open air and proper exercise, for a much longer pe- 
riod than would otherwise be possible. 

From the tendency of riding to equalize the cir- 
culation, stimulate the skin, and promote the action 
of the bowels, it is also excellently adapted as an 
exercise for dyspeptic and nervous invalids. 

Dancing is a cheerful and useful exercise, but has 
the disadvantage of being used within doors, in con- 
fined air, often in dusty rooms, and at most unsea- 
sonable hours. Practised in the open air, and in 
the day-time, as is common in France, dancing is 
certainly an invigorating pastime ; but in heated 
rooms and at late hours it is the reverse, and often 
does more harm than good. 

Gymnastic and callisthenic exercises have been in 
vogue for some years, for the purpose of promoting 
muscular and general growth and strength, but they 
are now rather sinking in public estimation ; en- 
tirely, I believe, from overlooking the necessity of 
adapting the kind and extent of them to the indi- 
vidual constitution ; the consequence of which has 
been, that some of the more weakly pupils have 
M 



134 DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCIS" 

been injured by exertions beyond their strength, 
and discredit has thus been brought upon the sys- 
tem. It is certain, indeed, that many of the com- 
mon gymnastic exercises are fit only for robust and 
healthy boys, and not at all for improving those who 
are delicately constituted, and who stand most in 
need of a well-planned training. It is impossible to 
enter minutely into this subject at present, but again 
the general principle comes to our assistance ; — 
viz. carefully to avoid great fatigue, and always to 
adapt the kind, degree, and duration of every gym- 
nastic exercise, so as to produce the desired results 
of increased nutrition and strength ; and to remem- 
ber that the point at which these results are to be 
obtained is not the same in any two individuals, 
and can be discovered only by experience and care- 
ful observation. 

For giving strength to the chest, fencing is a good 
exercise for boys, but the above limit ought never 
to be exceeded, as it often is, by measuring the 
length of a lesson by the hour-hand of a clock, in- 
stead of its effects on the constitution. Shuttlecock, 
as an exercise which calls into play the muscles of 
the chest, trunk, and arms, is also very beneficial, 
and would be still more so were it transferred to the 
open air. After a little practice, it can be played 
with the left as easily as with the right hand, and 
is, therefore, very useful in preventing curvature, 
and giving vigour to the spine in females. The 
play called the graces is also well adapted for ex- 
panding the chest, and giving strength to the mus- 
cles of the back, and has the advantage of being 
practicable in the open air. 

Dumb-bells are less in repute than they were some 
years ago, but when they are not too heavy, and the 
various movements gone through are not too eccen- 
tric or difficult, they are very useful. They do 
harm occasionally, from their weight being dispro- 
portioned to the weak frames which use them ; in 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 135 

>vhich case they pull down the shoulders by dint of 
mere dragging-. When this or any other exercise is 
resorted to in the house, the windows ought to be 
thrown open, so as to make the nearest possible ap- 
proach to the external air. 

Reading aloud and recitation are more useful and 
invigorating muscular exercises than is generally 
imagined, at least when managed with due regard 
to the natural powers of the individual, so as to 
avoid effort and fatigue. Both require the varied 
activity of most of the muscles of the trunk to a de- 
gree of which few are conscious, till their attention 
is turned to it. In forming and undulating the voice, 
not' only the chest but also the diaphragm and ab- 
dominal muscles are in constant action, and com- 
municate to the stomach and bowels a healthy and 
agreeable stimulus ; and, consequently, where the 
voice is raised and elocution rapid, as in many kinds 
of public speaking, the muscular effort comes to be 
*ven more fatiguing than the mental, especially to 
"jiose who are unaccustomed to it, and hence the 
copious perspiration and bodily exhaustion of popu- 
jar orators and preachers. When care is taken, 
.nowever, not to carry reading aloud or reciting so 
far at one time as to excite the least sensation of 
soreness or fatigue in the chest, and it is duly re- 
peated, it is extremely useful in developing and 
giving tone to the organs of respiration, and to the 
general system. To the invigorating effects of this 
kind of exercise, the celebrated and lamented Cu- 
vier was in the habit of ascribing his own exemp- 
tion from consumption, to which, at the time of his 
appointment to a professorship, it was believed he 
would otherwise have fallen a sacrifice. The exer- 
cise of lecturing gradually strengthened his lungs, 
and improved his health so much that he w T as never 
afterward threatened with any serious pulmonary 
disease. But, of course, this happy result followed 
only because the exertion of lecturing was not too 



136 DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 

great for the then existing condition of his lungs. 
Had the delicacy of which he complained been fur- 
ther advanced, the fatigue of lecturing would only 
have accelerated his fate, and this must never be 
lost sight of in practically applying the rules of ex- 
ercise. 

It appears, then, from the foregoing remarks, that 
the most perfect of all exercises are those sports 
which combine free play of all the muscles of the 
body, mental excitement, and the unrestrained use 
of the voice ; and to such sports, accordingly, are 
the young so instinctively addicted, that nothing 
but the strictest vigilance and fear of punishment 
can deter them from engaging in them the moment 
the restraint of school is at an end. Many parents, 
absorbed in their own pursuits, forgetful of their own 
former experience, and ignorant that such are the 
benevolent dictates of Nature, abhor these whole- 
some outpourings of the juvenile voice, and lay re- 
strictions upon their children, which, by preventing 
the full development of the lungs and muscles, inflict 
permanent injury upon them in the very point where 
in this climate parents are most anxious to protect 
them. In accordance with this, we find that what 
are called wild romping boys or girls, or those who 
break through all such restrictions, often turn out 
the strongest and healthiest ; while those who sub- 
mit generally become more delicate as they grow 
older. 

Enough has, I trust, been said to enable any ra- 
tional parent or teacher to determine the fitness of 
the different kinds of muscular exercise, and to adapt 
the time, manner, and degree of each to every indi- 
vidual under his care : but before taking leave of the 
subject, and with a view to impress the more deeply 
upon the mind of the reader the practical importance 
of the principles inculcated in the preceding pages, 
I cannot refrain from subjoining a case which affords 
an extremely apposite illustration of almost every 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 137 

one of them. The particulars were furnished to me 
by a young friend who was allowed to peruse the 
manuscript of these pages, and who, as himself the 
subject of the case, was struck with the perfect ac- 
cordance between his own experience and the doc- 
trines here expounded. It is proper to keep in view 
that at the time of this experiment, my friend was 
about seventeen years of age, and growing rapidly. 
After having passed the winter, closely engaged in 
a sedentary profession, and unaccustomed to much, 
exercise, he was induced by the beauty of returning 
spring to dedicate a day to seeking enjo}^ment in a 
country excursion ; and for that purpose set off one 
morning in the month of May, without previous pre- 
paration, to walk to Haddington by way of North 
Berwick, — a distance of thirty- four miles. - Being at 
the time entirely unacquainted with physiology, he 
was not aware that the power of exerting the muscles 
depended, in any degree upon the previous mode of 
life, but thought that if a man was once able to walk 
thirty miles, he must necessarily continue to possess 
the same power, under all circumstances, while 
youth and health remained. The nervous stimulus 
arising from his escape from the desk, and from the 
expected delights of the excursion, carried him 
briskly and pleasantly over the ground for the first 
twelve miles, but then naturally began to decrease. 
Unfortunately the next part of the road lay through 
a dull, monotonous and sandy tract, presenting no 
object of interest to the mind, and no variety of any 
description; so that the mental stimulus, already 
greatly impaired in intensity, became still weaker. 
Being alone, his intellect and feelings could not be 
excited by the pleasures of companionship and con- 
versation : weariness consequently increased at every 
step ; and long before his arrival at North Berwick 
{twenty-five miles), " every vestige of enjoyment had 
disappeared, time seemed to move at a marvellous 
tardy pace, and every mile appeared doubled inlength.* 
M2 



138 DIFFERENT KINDS OF EXERCISE. 

Not being aware that excessive exercise without 
a succeeding period of repose is equally unfavourable 
to sleep and digestion, and having a lively recol- 
lection of the pleasures and refreshment consequent 
upon eating a good dinner with an appetite whetted 
by a proper degree of bodily labour in the open air, 
he looked forward with confidence to some recom- 
pense and consolation for his toils when dinner 
should make its appearance. In this, however, he 
was doubly disappointed ; for from having started 
with too light a breakfast, and walked so far, his 
digestive organs were, in common with every part 
of his system, so much impaired, that he looked 
upon the viands placed before him almost without 
appetite ; and as they were in themselves not re- 
markably nutritive or digestible, he infringed still 
further that condition of muscular action which con- 
sists in a full supply of nourishing arterial blood, 
made from plenty of nutritious food, — a condition 
which I have slated to be especially important in 
youth and during growth. 

After a rest of two hours, and taking a moderate 
allowance of wine, which, however, he says, "seemed 
to have lost its ancient virtue of imparting cheerful- 
ness to the human heart," he set out to complete the 
remaining ten miles to Haddington. The country 
was far more beautiful and varied, but the charms of 
nature had, by this time, lost all attractions, for our 
pedestrian w 7 as " now wholly occupied in counting 
the tedious miles yet to be traversed, and in making 
a pious vow that this pleasure-excursion, though not 
the first, should certainly be the last in his life." 
Being reduced to the utmost degree of exhaustion, 
it required an extraordinary effort to persevere ; 
but at last he arrived at Haddington, in a state of 
exquisite misery. Unable to read from fatigue, and 
having nobody to converse with, he sought refuge 
in bed at an early hour, in the expectation that " tired 
Nature's sweet restorer* balmy sleep," would visit 



JNTOLUNTARY MUSCLES. 139 

Ik'tf t )uch and bring him relief. But in accordance 
vi 1 1 what is mentioned on page 118, he tossed and 
tuu-L ed incessantly till four in the morning, a period 
of se/en hours, after which sleep came on. Next 
day my youthful friend returned home in the stage- 
coach, wiser, at least, if not the happier, for his 
pleasure-excursion; and now makes the observation, 
that if he had been instructed in the least degree in 
the nature of the human constitution, he would never 
for a moment have entertained an expectation of 
enjoyment from a proceeding so utterly in defiance 
of all the laws of exercise, as that of which he reaped 
the unpalatable fruits. He adds justly, that the num- 
ber of young men who suffer in a similar way is by 
no means small, and that he has reason to be thank- 
ful that he has not, like some of his companions, 
carried his transgression so far as permanently to 
injure health, or even sacrifice life. 

fJMy aim being practical utility, I have said nothing 
in this place on the subject of what are called the 
Involuntary Muscles, or those over which the will 
has no power, in contradistinction to the Voluntary, 
or those which obey the direction of the will. Most 
of the involuntary muscles are the agents of im- 
portant vital functions, which are carried on by them 
unconsciously to ourselves, and which it would have 
been dangerous to leave under our control. The 
chief of them is the heart, which goes on in one 
unvarying round of alternate contraction and re- 
laxation from the commencement till the termination 
of existence. The next in importance are those 
connected with respiration, which, like the heart, 
continue to act by night and by day for the whole 
period of a long life without weariness and without 
interruption. The muscular fibres of the stomach, 
bowels, bladder, and other viscera are excellent 
examples of the same class ; and the beneficence of 
Providence in withdrawing them from our control 
cannot be sufficiently admired. — Had the action of 



140 STRUCTURE OF BONES. 

the heart and respiratory muscles depended on the 
will, as that of the muscles of locomotion do, the 
circulation of the blood and the process of breathing 
would both have ceased whenever sleep or any 
other cause overcame the power of attention, and 
life would in consequence have been extinguished. 

From the different constitution of the voluntary 
and involuntary muscles, it is clear that the former 
were designed for alternate activity and repose. 
Had it so pleased the Creator, He could as easily 
h^ve rendered the one set of muscles incapable of 
fatigue, as he has actually rendered the other ; but- 
then the powers of man would not have been in 
harmony with the purpose of his existence. Inces- 
sant muscular activity would not only have been 
incompatible with the highest human enjoyment, — 
that arising from the gratification of the moral and 
intellectual faculties, — but it would have lacked ob- 
jects on which to expend itself usefully, and, un- 
guided by intellect, would only have served to over- 
turn and destroy the best provisions of nature for our 
happiness. 



CHAPTER VI. 



The Bones essential to Motion, and to the Security of the Vital 
Organs — The Skeleton — Bones are composed of Animal and 
of Earthy Matter — The Animal Part the Seat of their Vitality 
—The Proportions between these vary at different Periods of 
Life — Vessels, Nerves, Life, Growth, and Decay of Bones — 
Advantages of their Vitality and Insensibility — Their Adapta- 
tion to contained Parts — Conditions of Health — Necessity of 
Exercise. 

The hardness, strength, and insensibility which 
form the distinguishing properties of healthy bones 
fit them in a remarkable degree for serving as a basis 



STRUCTURE OF BONES. 141 

of support to the softer and more active textures of 
the body. By their means, the human frame is ena- 
bled to unite the most finished symmetry of form 
with the most perfect freedom of motion and secu- 
rity to life. 

Some of the bones, such as those which compose 
the scull and the socket for the eye, are designed 
exclusively for the protection of important organs 
contained within them. But by far the greater 
number are constructed with a direct reference to 
voluntary motion, and only incidentally serve for the 
purposes of protection. 

In proportion to the variety of movements which 
any piece of mechanism is required to perform, its 
component parts must be numerous and varied. 

Considered in this light, the animal frame is the 
most wonderful of all combinations of machinery. 
No production of art can be compared with it for 
the multiplicity and nicety of its evolutions, and yet 
all these are executed simply by muscular power, 
acting upon the bones, and changing their relative 
positions. 

The incalculable variety of movements required 
from man is the reason why the bones composing 
the skeleton are so numerous, and each so admira- 
bly connected with the others by articulations, con- 
structed so as to admit of precisely that kind of 
motion which the animal requires from it, and of no 
other. The advantages of this arrangement are not 
less obvious than admirable. Had the osseous 
framework consisted of one entire piece, not only 
would man and animals have been incapable of mo- 
tion, but every external shock would have been 
communicated undiminished to the whole system : 
whereas, by the division of its parts, and b}^ the in- 
terposition of the elastic cartilages and ligaments 
constituting the joints, free and extensive motion is 
secured, and the impetus of every external shock is 
deadened in its force, and diffused over the body, in 



142 DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON. 

the same way as to a person riding- in a carriage, the 
jolt of the wheel passing over a stone, is diminished 
by being diffused over the whole vehicle, in conse- 
quence of the elasticity of the springs. The safety 
imparted by this arrangement to the delicate and 
important vital organs is apt to be lost sight of, from 
the very smoothness with which it enables us to 
move along; but it will be perceived if we reflect on 
the shock given to the whole system by taking a 
single false step in going up or down a stair. The 
parts have then no time to adapt themselves to the 
exigencies of the moment, and to put the proper 
springs in play for the equal distribution of the im- 
petus. Death has been occasioned by accidents of 
this kind. 

The fabric resulting from the connexion of all 
these pieces in their natural order of arrangement 
is called the Skeleton. When the connexion is 
maintained by means of the ligaments which bound 
the pieces together during life, the whole is called 
a natural skeleton ; but if the place of the ligaments 
be supplied by wires, the skeleton is then said to be 
artificial. The bones entering into the composition 
of the human skeleton exceed 200 in number. Each 
is separate from, bui intimately connected with, the 
rest ; and of a shape, size, and construction in ex- 
act harmony with the kind and extent of motion 
which it is destined to exercise. Dry and uninviting 
as such a subject may seem at first sight, there are 
found, nevertheless, on closer examination, many 
points of inquiry both interesting and instructive, to 
which I shall briefly advert. 

The three great divisions of the skeleton recog- 
nised by anatomists are, the head, trunk, and extrem- 
ities. The first is well known ; the second includes 
the two great cavities, the thorax or chest, and the 
abdomen or belly ; and the third comprises the arms 
and legs, or upper and lower extremities. 

Each of these presents a structure beautifully 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON. 



143 



adapted to the purposes for which it is destined 
The head consists of the scull and bones of the face. 
The scull affords complete protection to the brain 




144 DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON. 

from all ordinary accidents, and also to the organs 
of hearing, seeing, smelling, and tasting. Protec- 
tion and not motion being the sole object of its con- 
struction, the numerous bones of which it is com- 
posed are joined to each other, not by moveable 
joints xlke other bones, but b)^ a kind of dovetailing, 
which combines the solidity of continuous struc- 
ture with the advantages which their separation 
gives in facilitating growth, and interrupting the ex- 
tension to all, of the injuries inflicted on one. 

The trunk, as will be seen from the annexed cut, 
consists of the spine a a, the ribs r r, the sternum x, 
and the pelvis s s. The spine, vertebral column, or 
back-bone, a a, which supports all the other parts, 
is a very remarkable piece of mechanism. It is 
composed in all of twenty-four separate bones 
called vertebra, from the Latin word vertere to turn, 
as the body turns upon them as on a pivot. Of 
these, seven, called cervical vertebrae, belong to 
the neck ; twelve, connected with the ribs and 
called dorsal, to the back ; and five, called lumbar, 
to the loins. The base of the column rests on the 
sacrum u, which is closely compacted between the 
bones of the pelvis s s. The vertebrae are firmly 
bound to each other in such a way as to admit 
of flexion and exfension and a certain degree of 
rotation, while by their solidity and firm attach- 
ment to each other great strength is secured. Some 
conception of this strength may be formed when we 
consider the enormous loads which some athletic 
men are able to carry on their shoulders, or raise in 
their hands ; the whole weight of which is neces- 
sarily borne by the vertebrae of the loins. As the 
space occupied by the abdomen gives large outward 
dimensions to this region of the body, it is only 
upon reflection that we perceive that the whole 
force exerted by the human frame in its most stren- 
uous efforts centres ultimately in the bony column 
we are now examining 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON 145 

While the smooth or rounded forepart or body of 
the vertebrae affords support to the superincumbent 
parts, the projecting ridge behind, and rugged pro- 
cesses at the sides, combine with it to form a large 
tube or canal, extending from the top to the bottom 
of the column in which the spinal marrow is con- 
tained and protected. Between each of the verte- 
brae a thick compressible cushion of cartilage and 
ligament is interposed, which serves the triple pur- 
pose of uniting the bones to each other, of dimin- 
ishing and diffusing the shock in walking or leaping, 
and of admitting a greater extent of motion than if 
the bones were in more immediate contact. 

The ribs rr, twelve in number on each side, are 
attached by their heads to the spine, and by their 
other (cartilaginous) extremities to the sternum or 
breast-bone x. The seven uppermost are called true 
ribs, because each of them is connected directly with 
the sternum, by means of a separate cartilage. The 
five lower ribs are called false, because one or two 
of them are loose at one end, and the cartilages of 
the rest run into each other instead of being sepa- 
rately prolonged to the breast-bone. The use of 
the ribs is to form the cavity of the chest for the re- 
ception and protection of the lungs, heart, and great 
blood-vessels, and to assist in respiration by their 
alternate rising and falling. This action enlarges 
and diminishes the size of the chest and the capa- 
city of the lungs. 

The pelvis s s is formed by the broad flat bones 
which support the bowels and serve for the articu- 
lation of the thigh. A general notion of their ap- 
pearance and uses may be obtained from inspection 
of the cut, which, however, does not with perfect 
accuracy represent the more minute structure. 

The bones of the upper extremities are, the scapula 

or shoulder-blade ; the clavicle or collar-bone y ; the 

humerus or arm-bone b ; the radius d, and ulna e 9 or 

bones of the forearm ; and the small carpal and meta- 

N 



146 DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON. 

carpal bones/ and phalanges g, forming the wrist, 
hand, and fingers. 

The scapula is the broad flat bone lying at the 
upper part of the back, familiarly known as the 
shoulder-blade, and so troublesome to many young 
ladies by its unseemly projection. It serves to 
connect the arm with the trunk of the body, and 
gives origin to many of the muscles by which the 
former is put in motion. The collar-bone y extends 
from the breast-bone outwards to the scapula. Its 
chief use is to prevent the arms from falling for- 
ward in front of the body ; and hence it is wanting 
in the lower animals, whose superior extremities are 
much closer to each other than those of man. 

The humerus or arm-bone b is adapted by a kind of 
ball and socket joint to a corresponding surface in 
the scapula, and hence enjoys great latitude of mo- 
tion, and is somewhat liable to dislocation. The 
radius and ulna d e, constituting the forearm, are con- 
nected with the humerus by a hinge-like joint, which 
admits readily of flexion and extension, but not of 
rotation ; and as the articulation is of a peculiar con- 
struction, it is rarely dislocated. The movements 
of pronation and supination, or turning round the 
hand, are effected, not by the elbow-joint, but by the 
radius d moving upon the ulna e, by means of joints 
formed for this purpose. The wrist and finger 
joints are too complicated to admit of explanation 
here. 

The lower extremities consist of the osfemoris or 
thigh-bone i, the patella or knee-pan /, the tibia m t 
and fibula n, or leg bones ; and the tarsal and meta- 
tarsalbones o, and phalanges p, composing the ankle, 
foot, and toes. 

The thigh-bone i is articulated by means of a large 
round head deeply sunk into a corresponding hollow 
in the pelvis at A, freedom of motion being thus 
combined with great security. The thigh may be 
moved backwards and forwards as in walking ; and 



COMPOSITION OF BONES, 147 

also outwards and inwards, as when sitting on. 
horseback or with the legs crossed. The socket 
being much deeper than that of the shoulder-joint, 
the thigh-bone has not the same range of motion as 
the humerus, but it has proportionally greater secu- 
rity. 

The patella or knee-pan I is well known. It is a 
small bone, constituting the projection of the knee. 
It increases the power of the muscles which extend 
the leg, and protects the front of the knee-joint. 
The tibia m is the principal bone of the leg, and is 
the only one articulated with that of the thigh. Its 
lower end forms the projection at the inner ankle. 
The fibula n is the long slender bone at the outer 
side of the leg, the lower end of which forms the 
outer ankle. The tibia and fibula both contribute to 
the formation of the ankle-joint, which, like that of 
the knee, is almost limited to flexion and extension. 

The tarsal bones constituting the foot display an 
admirable mechanism, but without plates any de- 
scription of them would be unintelligible. My pres- 
ent aim being practical utility, I shall therefore pass 
over these details, and rather lay before the reader 
several considerations of a more general and directly 
useful nature. 

Bones consist of two kinds of substances, viz. 
those of an animal and those of an earthy nature. 
To the former belongs every thing connected with 
the life and growth of bones, and to the latter the 
hardness and power of resistance by which they are 
characterized. 

The animal portion of bones constitutes, accord- 
ing to the analysis of Berzelius, about 32.17 per cent, 
of their substance, and consists chiefly of albumen, 
gelatine, cellular membrane, blood-vessels, nerves, 
and absorbents. Of the remaining 67 per cent, of 
earthy matter, nearly 52 parts consist of phosphate, 
and 11 of carbonate, of lime. The relative propor- 
tions of the animal and earthy constituents vary, 



148 GROWTH OF BONES. 

however, according to the period of life. In in- 
fancy, the animal portion greatly predominates, and 
consequently the bones are at that age compara- 
tively soft, yielding, and elastic. In middle life, the 
proportions are more equally balanced, and while 
the bones thereby acquire great hardness and solid- 
ity, they still preserve some elasticity. In old age, 
on the contrary, when the earthy constituents pre- 
dominate, they become dry, brittle, and compara- 
tively lifeless. 

If a bone be subjected for a time to the action of 
muriatic acid, the earthy portion is gradually de- 
composed, and a cartilaginous-looking substance of 
the exact shape and size of the bone is procured, 
which is in reality its animal constituent. If, on the 
other hand, the bone be subjected to the action of 
fire, which decomposes and dissipates the animal 
elements but scarcely affects the earths, a white, 
light, easily crumbled mass, of the exact shape and 
appearance of the original bone, is procured, which 
is simply the earthy part of bone, deprived of its 
connecting membrane. The latter is called the an 
imal constituent of the bone, because it is the pro- 
duct of animal life, and does not exist in nature, ex- 
cept in the system of animals ; and the former is 
called the earthy constituent, because it may and 
does exist in nature, without relation to life. 

A very important purpose is served by the differ- 
ent proportions which the animal elements of bone 
jearto the earthy, at different ages. In early youth, 
when much strength is not wanted, as the body is 
never exposed to severe efforts, but when a great 
growth of bone is required to complete the develop- 
ment of the human frame, the animal or living part 
of the bone is observed to preponderate. But in 
middle life, when growth is finished, and the powers 
of resistance are at their maximum, and when nu- 
trition is required only to repair waste, a larger pro- 
portion of the solid or earthy, and a smaller propor- 



RENOVATION OF BONES. 149 

tion of the vital constituents, becomes necessary 
In old age, again, when the wants of the system are 
reversed, and when positive diminution of existing 
masses is required to put the frame into harmony 
with the shrunk muscles and feebler powers of life, 
the absorbent vessels carry away more of the vital 
matter, leaving chiefly the earth, which, being less 
susceptible of change, requires scarcely any support 
from within; and hence the brittle and compact 
hardness of the bones, and their little capability of 
uniting when fracture happens at an advanced pe- 
riod of life. 

At birth many of the bones are, properly speak- 
ing, of a cartilaginous nature. As ossification ad- 
vances, the cartilage is removed by the absorbents, 
and its place supplied by a kind of cellular mem- 
brane, in the interstices of which the earthy parti- 
cles are deposited ; the two forming, by their union, 
the homogeneous whole called Bone. Although, 
therefore, it is to the softer material alone that vital 
properties essentially belong, it is usual to speak of 
the life, the vessels, and the nerves of bones, as if 
life belonged equally to the earthy and animal por- 
tions. This is correct enough in reality, because 
the union between the earthy and animal tissues is 
always the product of life ; and the parts thus united 
are, to all intents and purposes, living parts. 

To carry on the processes of waste and renova- 
tion, by which every living structure is distinguished, 
all parts of the body are provided, first, with ar- 
teries, conveying to them red or nutritive blood ; 
secondly, with exhalants, by which the new matter 
is deposited, and which are believed to be the minute 
terminations of the arteries; thirdly, with veins 
by which the blood is carried back to the heart ; 
fourthly, with absorbent vessels, which take up and 
carry away the waste particles to be thrown out of 
the system ; and, lastly, with nerves to supply all 
these vessels, and the organs on which thev are dis- 
N2 



150 CHANGES OF BONES. 

tributed, with that nervous energy which is essential 
to their vitality and to their connexion with other 
parts of the system. The bones, insensible as they 
may seem, possess all these attributes of living- and 
organized parts. They are all provided with blood- 
vessels, with nerves, and with exhaling and absorb- 
ing vessels ; and they are constantly undergoing the 
same process of decay and renovation to which all 
other living parts are subjected. 

That bones are provided with blood-vessels is 
shown by the fact, that anatomists are able to trace 
these vessels into their substance, and to inject 
those of a young subject with wax, so minutely as 
to make the bones appear of a lively Ted colour. 
That they are provided also with nerves is evident, 
both from dissection and from the effects of in- 
juries and disease. A healthy bone may be cut or 
sawn across without causing pain, but when the 
same bone becomes inflamed, the most excruciating 
torture is felt. And as sensation is the exclusive 
attribute of the nervous system, this fact alone 
would authorize us to assume their existence, even 
although nervous fibres could not be traced entering 
the osseous substance. 

That the substance of the bones is continually 
undergoing a change, and that, while the old parti- 
cles are withdrawn by absorbents, new particles are 
constantly deposited by the nutrient or exhalant ves- 
sels, is abundantly proved by the often repeated ex- 
periments of Duhamel. If madder be mixed with 
the food of fowls for* a few days, and the fowls be 
then killed, the colouring matter deposited by the 
nutrient vessels will invariably be found to have 
died the bones of a deep red ; and if the madder be 
withdrawn, the bones will then be found to be less 
and less red in proportion to the length of time 
which has been allowed to elapse — evidently showing 
that waste and renovation are constantly going on. 

It may be thought, that bones are, in their very 



INSENSIBILITY OF BONES. 151 

essence, so hard and durable as to render any such 
supply of nourishment and change of parts alto- 
gether unnecessary. But if we look for a moment 
to the advantages consequent upon this order of 
things, we shah see abundant reason to abandon 
such an opinion. 

It is only by means of the processes of growth 
and renewal that the bones can adapt themselves 
to the wants and state of the system. If the bones 
were not endowed with the principle of life, the stat- 
ure of the infant must have been that of the future 
man. Or even supposing the osseous system to have 
grown to maturity, and then remained unchanged, 
the withered form of old age would necessarily have 
been oppressed and overcome by the large and mas- 
sive bones which the vigorous muscles of manhood 
alone could easily put in motion. Had the bones 
been created unsusceptible of internal change and 
unendowed with life, it is obvious, that when broken 
by accident they must have remained for ever dis- 
united, and therefore an encumbrance instead of an 
assistance to the animal. But from possessing blood- 
vessels of their own to supply them with nourish- 
ment, and nerves to give power of action to those 
blood-vessels, the very irritation of the broken ends 
is made to serve the purpose of increasing the vital 
powers of the injured parts, and producing that ex- 
citement which is necessary for the formation of a 
new bond of union, and for filling up the gap that 
would otherwise have remained. 

In a state of health, the bones are insensible to 
pain ; and here, also, the most provident benevolence 
appears. For, surrounded as they are by the softer 
and more sensitive parts, these afford them ample 
protection, while their insensibility enables them to 
act, for any length of time, without weariness or 
pain. But when a severe accident occurs to break 
them asunder or destroy their texture, pain then be- 
comes their kindest guardian, and the surest pro- 



J 52 SENSIBILITY OF EONES 

tnoter of their recovery. In such circumstances, 
indeed, nothing can be more truly benevolent than 
pain. It accompanies that inflammation and vascu- 
lar activity without which the work of reunion of 
the broken part cannot be accomplished ; and is the 
means of securing the repose and quietude which 
are essential to the exact adaptation of the parts to 
each other, and which can be effected only by caus- 
ing great pain to follow even the slightest motion. 
Of such utility is the inflammation on these occa- 
sions, that when, as sometimes happens, the requi- 
site degree of it, from want of nervous sensibility in 
the part, does not take place, and the bone remains 
disunited for many weeks, surgeons are in the habit 
of using violence to produce the necessary stimulus. 
In this case they either rub the broken ends rudely 
against each other, or introduce an instrument be- 
tween them, by which pain and irritation may be ex- 
cited; and then reunion is accomplished. On the 
other hand, if pain did not guard the limb from mo- 
tion when the process of recovery was going on, 
the union would be incessantly disturbed by every 
heedless and unavoidable start altering the relative 
positions of the parts- This, also, is occasionally 
exemplified in practice. Looking at these facts, it 
is impossible not to admire the wisdom and the be- 
nevolence manifested in the adaptation of the struc- 
ture of bones in every particular to the circumstances 
and occurrences of life. 

Another advantage arising from the vitality of 
bones is their susceptibility of change without in- 
jury to life. Thus it frequently happens, that, in 
infancy, water collects within the head in consider 
able quantity : but, in consequence of the law, that 
the form of the scull accommodates itself to the 
form and dimensions of its soft contents, the bones 
yield to the pressure from within, become larger, 
and, by forming a larger cavity, enable the brain to 
execute its functions, and life to go on ; whereao, 



INCREASE AND DIMINUTION OF BONES. 153 

had the scull been incapable of undergoing change 
death would have to a certainty ensued. The scull 
owes this power of adaptation entirely to its pos- 
sessing vessels and nerves, and to its undergoing a 
constant decay and renewal, like the other parts of 
the system. 

The same phenomena are exhibited by the bones 
of the chest. When tumours arise, or collections 
of fluid take place within that cavity, there is a 
constant effort on the part of nature to take advan- 
tage of this constitution of the bones, and to cause 
them so to expand, as to save the lungs and heart 
from hurtful pressure, and allow respiration and 
circulation to go on unimpaired. 

In the opposite circumstances of diminished vol- 
ume of the soft contents of the cavities, the same 
law enables the bone to decrease in a correspond- 
ing proportion, and consequently to continue the 
protection which it affords to its contained organs. 
Thus, were the bone to remain unaltered, when, in 
cases of disease and in old age, the brain diminishes 
in size, the cavity of the scull would be only 
partially filled, and the brain, so far from being pro- 
tected, would be jolted backwards and forwards, up- 
wards and downwards by every motion of the head 
or body, till its structure should be utterly destroyed, 
and life itself extinguished. 

To those who are unacquainted with the laws of 
nutrition of organized bodies, and who are accus- 
tomed to notice the hard and unyielding nature of 
bone, without having any adequate perception of 
the particular uses of the adaptation of the hard 
to the soft parts, this adaptation may seem strange 
and improbable ; but a little consideration will satisfy 
every one that it could not have been otherwise. 

In infancy, when the lungs are imperfectly devel- 
oped, the chest is narrow, flat, and confined, and the 
ribs almost in close juxtaposition. In youth and 
in middle age, when force and activity require fill- 



154 ADAPTATION OF BONES. 

ness and vigour of respiration, the lungs enlarge, and, 
to give them scope, the chest b< omes full, broad, 
and capacious. In old age, again, when the season 
of active exertion is over, and the strength decays, 
the broad shoulders and capacious chest of man- 
hood gradually disappear, and a totally different 
form occupies its place. Now, at all these periods, 
the bones are the parts which, by their alteration, 
serve as an index of the changes going on within ; 
and on this large scale, the difference in their form 
is so great that it must be obvious to all. 

Where the whole of the soft contents of the bony 
cavity increase in size, as happe jve in the case of 
water in the head, the result is, as already mentioned, 
an expansion from interstitial growth of the osseous 
covering. But where the tumour or pressure is 
limited to a small part, a process of a different kind 
often takes place, which has also the preservation of 
life for its object, and which is accomplishedby another 
of the natural actions, — absorption. When a bone, 
say of four inches square, is required gradually to ex- 
pand itself, so as to protect a surface of six inches 
or of double the extent, this is accomplished by the 
gradual removal of the old, and the deposition of 
new and additional particles, on, as it were, a new 
and enlarged mould. But in the other case, where 
the pressure is very limited — where, for instance, a 
small tumour develops itself on the surface of the 
brain, which, if allowed to grow within unyielding 
walls, would soon cause death by pressure on the 
brain — the ordinary process of absorption becomes 
greatly excited, and gradually eats away the whole 
thickness of the bone over the tumour, which then 
protrudes externally, and relieves the brain within 
from pressure which would have been fatal to it. 

I have already stated, that besides a large pro- 
portion of earthy matter, which gives to them dry- 
ness and hardness, bones contain a large quantity 
of animal matter, which is essential to their constitu- 



ABSORBENT VESSELS OF BONES. 155 

lion. In early life, this cartilaginous matter pre- 
ponderates, and the bones are consequently less 
heavy, more pliable and elastic, and possessed of 
greater vitality. In old age, again, the earthy parts 
predominate, and with them fragility, insensibility, 
and a lower degree of life. It is from this diiference 
that bones broken in youth reunite in one-third of 
the time necessary for their reunion in advanced 
life. 

In some unhealthy states of the system, the pro- 
portion of earthy matter is greatly diminished, and in 
some parts it is even altogether removed. The bones 
become soft, compressible, and incapable of affording 
protection or support to other parts, to such a degree 
that instances have occurred in which the lower 
extremities could be twisted behind, as if made of 
wire. A slighter degree of the same affection is 
common in weak, rickety children ; and hence the 
deformity of limbs so often occurring from absolute 
insufficiency of the bones to support the weight of 
the body. 

The practical application to be made of our know- 
ledge of the constitution of the bones, as parts of 
our animal frame, and as governed by the ordinary 
organic laws, will now be obvious. Their health 
we have seen to depend on the regular supply of 
nourishment by the blood-vessels, on a due supply 
of nervous energy by the nerves, and on a due 
balance between the action of the nutrient and ab- 
sorbent or removing vessels. To the steady obser- 
vation of these conditions, therefore, we are bound 
to attend. 

It is a common fault to consider the study of an 
organ or function complete, when we have viewed 
it on all sides as an isolated part, without regarding 
its external relations as constituting an essential 
portion of its history. Thus, although we examine 
the structure and functions of the heart, and see 
that it is a muscle, and that its office is to contract ; 



156 DISEASES OF BONES. 

our knowledge is incomplete if we do not go still 
further, and see that blood is the stimulant v/hich 
causes its contractile power to act. And in like 
manner with the eye, whose relations to light are 
as essential a part of its constitution as the trans- 
parency of its membranes or the convexity of its 
lens. Now in the case of the bones we are apt to 
describe their hardness, their mobility, and other 
qualities, without sufficiently adverting to the fact 
that, being organs of resistance and motion, the 
frequent and regular performance of motion and re- 
sistance is as essential to their well-being as blcod 
is to the heart, air to the lungs, or light to the eyes. 
And, accordingly, when that condition is not fulfilled, 
the bones become feeble, diseased, and unfit for 
their functions, just as the softer parts of the body 
do. In practice, it is of the utmost importance to 
be fully aware of this fact. 

It is familiar to the professional mind, that a part 
deprived of that exercise or action which nature 
destined it to fulfil becomes weakened, diminishes in 
size, and at last shrivels and alters so much in appear- 
ance as not to be recognisable. Thus, if an artery — 
the large artery which supplies the arm with blood, for 
example — be tied, and the flow of blood obstructed, 
a change of structure immediately begins, and goes 
on progressively, till, at the end of a few weeks, 
what was formerly a hollow elastic tube presents 
the appearance of a ligamentous inelastic cord. A 
muscle condemned to inaction loses half its bulk in a 
comparatively short time ; and if long unexercised, 
at last loses entirely its power of contraction and 
muscular appearance. The same rule holds- with 
all other parts of the system, and, in an especial 
manner, even with the hard and apparently unalter- 
able fabric of the bones. It is ascertained by ex- 
tensive experience, that complete inaction, besides 
diminishing the size, injures the structure of bone 
so much as to deprive it of its hardness, and 



EXERCISE AND NUTRITION. ] 57 

render it susceptible of being cut with a knife. 
Now, what is strongly marked in the extreme case 
is not less active, although it may be less palpab]y 
apparent in cases where there is great, though not 
total, deprivation of exercise : and hence one cause 
of the bad health, crooked spines, and deformed 
figures, of which the habitual restraint and condem- 
nation to attitude in modern education lay so wide- 
spreading and so deep a foundation, — evils which 
could never stand for a moment before knowledge 
or reason. The bones are the solid organs of mo- 
tion ; and unless they be duly exercised in effecting 
motion, they, like the muscles which move them, 
suffer and decay in virtue of that universal law 
which requires exercise as the condition of their 
well-being — as the stimulus necessary to their ex- 
istence. 

In early youth, in particular, when every part 
teems with life and activity, and is almost hourly 
acquiring an increase of dimensions, the nutrient 
system is in a state of unceasing and powerful 
action, and a rich and abundant supply of food is in- 
dispensable to health. Nature points out this fact, 
in the keen and vigorous appetite and strong powers 
of digestion which every healthy child uniformly 
manifests. To put ourselves in accordance with the 
intention of nature, at this period of life, it is, there- 
fore, absolutely necessary to supply in abundance 
wholesome and nourishing food. The non-fulfil- 
ment of this condition, so often seen in times of 
distress among the labouring classes, gives rise to 
that tumid softness and consequent weakness of the 
bones and soft parts, which is known by the name 
of rickets ; and which, if it continue till maturity, 
i. e. during the years of active nutrition, invariably 
leads to distortion and deformity. 

The next requisite for the development and health 
of the osseous system is adequate exercise ; and 
this condition cannot be infringed with impunity 
O 



158 CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES. 

any more than the former. Wherever matter is the 
subject, action implies waste of materials, and unless 
this waste be made up by proportionate supplies, 
exercise leads to speedy decay, such as we see take 
place where the exercise has been carried beyond 
the limits of nature, and beyond what any supply 
can compensate. Inaction, on the contrary, implies 
almost stagnation, and is always attended by dimi- 
nution of the vital functions ; as is exemplified, in 
the extreme degree, in hybernating animals, which 
pass months in sleep without food and almost with- 
out breathing, — and also in frogs found alive in 
stones and trees, where they must have been dor- 
mant for a great number of years. Inactive parts, 
then, require little nutrition, because there is little 
expenditure ; and they require little force or energy, 
because it would rje not only useless but detrimental 
to them. 

By a law of the constitution, manifestly arranged 
with relation to this principle, when any part of the 
system is active, it attracts to itself, by the simple 
stimulus of that activity, an increased supply of 
blood and nervous energy. The former enables it 
to repair the waste of substance which action pro- 
duces, and the latter gives an increased tone in har- 
mony with the greater call made on its powers. If 
the exercise is momentary and is not repeated, the 
extraordinary flow of blood soon disappears, and 
the nervous power falls to the usual standard : but 
if it is continued for a time, and is recurred to at 
regular intervals, a more active nutrition is estab- 
lished ; a permanently greater supply of blood 
enters the vessels, even daring the intervals of in- 
action ; and an increase of development takes place, 
attended with increased facilit}^ and force of func- 
tion. 

If, again, any part is not duly exercised, there is 
no local stimulus to attract a large supply of blood 
or abundant flow of the nervous fluid ; there is no 



CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES. 159 

activity of nutrition, no perfection of development, 
and no force of function. And hence, in partial ex- 
ercise, there is always predominance of some part 
over others ; the one too strong, the other too 
feeble. In the muscular system, the arms of a 
blacksmith, contrasted with those of a dancing- 
master, are a sufficient illustration. 

This law of increased afflux of fluids and in- 
creased nutrition to exercised parts, and of diminished 
afflux and nutrition to inactive parts, is not only 
highly important in its practical consequences, but 
in exact and obvious accordance with the plainest 
principles of reason. By this benevolent arrange- 
ment, parts acting strongly receive large supplies, 
and parts doing nothing are left in the state of 
weakness befitting the demands made upon them. 
To every one who sees the principle, it must appear 
the height of folly to expect great nutrition and 
great energy to follow inaction, and vice versd ; and 
yet this is what, in ignorance, is daily looked for by 
mankind at large. 

This law of exercise, as influencing nutrition and 
function, is universal in its application, and applies 
to the osseous as much as to any other system. If 
the bones are duly exercised in their function of ad- 
ministering to motion, then active nutrition goes on, 
and they acquire dimensions, strength, and solidity. 
If they are not exercised, the stimulus required for 
the supply of blood to them becomes insufficient ; 
imperfect nutrition takes place ; and debility, soft- 
ness, and unfitness for their office follow in the 
train. This cause of defective formation is most 
active and most commonly seen in the bones of the 
spine in growing girls, who are denied free exercise 
in that part ; and the consequent weakness in the 
bones and cartilages, as well as in the muscles, is a 
very frequent cause of the swollen joints and cur- 
vature in the bones of the limbs in young people, 
which no subsequent care can ever remove. 



160 CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES. 

The beneficial effects of exercise and diet in im- 
parting solidity to the bones have not escaped the 
observation of trainers. Sir John Sinclair ex- 
pressly mentions that the bones become, in a re- 
markable degree, harder and tougher, and less liable 
to be injured by blows or accidents. Testimony of 
this kind ought to be of great weight, as based, not 
„ on theory, but on the broad and well-marked ex- 
perience of practical men.* 

It must be observed, however, that defective nu- 
trition may arise from other causes than inadequate 
exercise ; but even then, the consequences attending 
it are analogous in their nature. Among the pooi 
it often arises from deficiency of wholesome food, 
and from damp dark habitations ; among the rich, 
from feeble digestive and assimilating powers, and 
pampering in diet ; and also from errors in clothing, 
and neglect of sufficient ventilation, and due expo- 
sure to the open air. Rickets, softness of the bones, 
and white swelling are accordingly observed to be 
almost confined to children belonging to one or other 
of these classes. 

To understand more clearly the relative uses of 
bones and muscles, we may be allowed to use a 
comparison, although, like all other comparisons, it 
presents many points of difference. The bones are 
to the body what the mast and spars are to a ship ; 
they give support and the power of resistance : and 
the muscles are to the bones what the ropes are to 
the masts and spars. It is to the muscles that the 
bones are indebted for the power of preserving or 
changing their relative position. If the bones or 
masts are too feeble in proportion to the weight 
which they are required to sustain, then a deviation 
from their shape and position takes place ; and on 
the other hand, if the muscles or ropes are not suffi- 
ciently strong and well braced, then insufficiency of 

* Code of Health, 5th edit. Appendix, p. 35. 



CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES. 161 

support must necessarily result. Early infancy 
affords an instance of both imperfections ; the bone 
being infirm, and the muscles small and destitute of 
true fleshy fibres. The diseased state, called molli- 
ties ossium, or softness of the bones, is an instance 
of what may be called a weak mast of the body, 
which must yield if its muscles be strongly drawn. 
The state of muscular debility consequent on fever 
and many acute diseases, or even on sudden fright, 
is, on the other hand, an instance of the inability of 
the bones alone to preserve an attitude, or execute 
motion, when the muscular system is weakened by 
disease. These differences merit attention. 

In the regular order of nature, the maturity and 
perfection of all organs and functions are attained 
at the precise time at which each is required. The 
bones of the infant are soft, vascular, cartilaginous, 
full of life, and vigorous in growth ; but having no en- 
ergetic motions to perform, they possess little power 
of solid resistance. In accordance with this con- 
dition of the bones, the muscles which move them 
are small, gelatinous, imperfectly fibrous, and little 
capable of powerful contraction. If the bones had 
been made solid and heavy from the beginning, 
they would not only have been inert and cumbrous 
masses, destitute of muscles to put them in motion ; 
but, from being less vascular and less alive, they 
could not have grown with the rapidity necessary 
to adapt themselves to the growth of the other parts 
of the system. If, on the other hand, powerful 
muscles had existed from the first, they would have 
served only to twist the soft and yielding bones into 
fantastic shapes. Or, if both solid bones and strong 
muscles had been given from birth, then a complete 
power of locomotion would have been the result, 
which from the absence of intellect and of know- 
ledge of the external world to direct it, would have 
led to incessant evils, if not to speedy destruction. 
But as things are arranged, the most profound wis- 
2 



162 CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES. 

dom and the purest benevolence show themselves 
in the beautiful adaptation of all the parts and func- 
tions to each other and to one common end. 

Knowledge of the condition of the bones at dif- 
ferent periods of life is not without its practical 
uses — particularly in regulating our treatment of 
children. Some fond parents, disregarding the fact 
that the bones are comparatively soft and pliable in 
infancy, and in their haste to see the little objects 
walk without support, are continually soliciting at- 
tempts at standing- or walking, long before the bones 
have acquired sufficient power of resistance, and the 
muscles sufficient power of contraction, to cope 
with the laws of gravitation. The natural conse- 
quence is a curvature of the bone, which yields just 
like an elastic stick bending under a weight. The 
two ends approach nearer to each other than they 
ought to do ; and to accommodate themselves to the 
change, the muscles become shorter on one side, 
and perhaps longeron the other, each losing part of 
its efficacy in the unnatural change which it un- 
dergoes. 

From this view, it will be seen how hurtful lead- 
ing-strings must be. In the first place, by their 
mechanical force, they compress the chest and im- 
pede respiration ; and, in the second, by preventing 
the body from falling to the ground, or rather by 
preserving an upright position, they cause the whole 
weight to fall on the bones of the spine and lower 
extremities, which are not fitted by nature to bear 
the burden. From this noxious practice, flatness 
of the chest, confined lungs, distorted spine, and de- 
formed legs too often originate. 

The impropriety of an indiscriminate use of dumb- 
bells, in early life, will also be easily understood. 
If the weight of these be disproportioned to the 
strength of the bones, it is obvious that we must pro- 
duce the same kind of evil as by premature attempts 
to walk, viz. yielding of the bones, and stretching 



CONDITIONS OF HEALTH IN BONES. 163 

and relaxation of their connecting* ligaments. If, 
again, they be disproportionate to the muscular 
power, their effect will be to exhaust instead of in- 
creasing the strength of the body. 

From the exposition I have given of the laws of 
exercise, as affecting the muscular and osseous sys- 
tems, the absurdity of expecting to strengthen either 
the one or the other by the use of stays, or by lying 
for hours on a horizontal or inclined plane, will be 
abundantly manifest. There is no royal road to 
health and strength, and no method by which, while 
exercise is dispensed with, its advantages can be 
obtained. In the intervals between exercise, reclining 
on a plane is very useful in delicate fast-growing 
girls ; but it should be continued only till the feeling 
of fatigue goes off, and never be resorted to for 
hours in succession, as it often is on the false notion 
of its being conducive to strength. 

In this chapter, as well as in that on the muscles, 
I have dwelt perhaps too long on the principles by 
which exercise ought to be regulated ; but as the 
subject is little understood by those who have the 
direction of youth, and as it is of paramount import- 
ance, I am inclined to hope that the tediousness of 
repetition maybe forgiven, if clearness and convic- 
tion are obtained. 



164 ARTERIAL AND VENOUS BLOOD. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Arterial and venous Blood — Nature of Respiration — Structure 
of the Lungs — Conditions required for healthy Respiration — 
Sound original Constitution — Influence of hereditary Predis- 
position — Of wholesome Food, and good Digestion — Of the 
free Expansion of the Lungs — Of Exercise of the Muscles and 
Voice — Of Cheerfulness and Depression of Mind — Of pure 
Air and Ventilation — Examples of the bad Effects of vitiated 
Air — Respiration the Source of Animal Heat — Causes of de- 
ficient Generation of Heat — Removal of such Causes — Direct 
and indirect Exercise of the Lungs — Beneficial Effects of, 
and Rules for Exercise — Precautions to be observed in Dis- 
eases of the Lungs, and in Persons predisposed to Con- 
sumption. 

We come next to treat of the lungs and of the 
function of Respiration ; but, in order to be clearly- 
understood, I must premise a few observations on 
the circulation of the blood. 

The blood circulating through the body is of two 
different kinds ; the one red or arterial, and the 
other dark or venous blood. The former alone is 
capable of affording nourishment and of supporting 
life. It is distributed from the left side of the hecsrt 
all over the body, by means of a great artery or 
blood-vessel called the aorta, which subdivides in its 
course, and ultimately terminates in myriads of very 
minute ramifications, closely interwoven with, and 
in reality constituting a large portion of, the texture 
of every living part. On reaching this extreme point 
of its course, the blood passes into equally minute 
ramifications of the veins, which, in their turn, 
gradually coalesce and form larger and larger trunks, 
till they at last terminate in two large veins, by 
which the whole current of the venous blood is 
brought back in a direction contrary to that in the 



ARTERIAL AND VENOUS BLOOD. 165 

arteries, and poured into the right side of the heart. 
On examining the quality of the blood in these two 
systems of vessels, it is found to have undergone a 
great change in its passage from the one to the 
other. The florid hue which distinguishes it in the 
arteries has disappeared, and given place to the dark 
colour characteristic of venous blood. Its proper- 
ties, too, have changed, and it is now no longer 
capable of sustaining life. 

Two conditions are essential to the reconversion 
Of venous into arterial blood, and to the restoration 
Df its vital properties. The first is an adequate pro- 
vision of new materials from the food, to supply the 
place of those which have been expended in nutri- 
tion ; and the second is the free exposure of the venous 
Mood to the atmospheric air. 

The first condition is fulfilled by the chyle or nu- 
trient principle of the food being regularly poured 
into the venous blood, just before it reaches the 
right side of the heart ; and the second, by the very 
important process of respiration, which takes place 
in the air-cells of the lungs, and which it is our 
present object to explain. 

The venous blood, having arrived at the right side 
of the heart, is propelled by the contraction of that 
organ into a large artery, leading directly, by separ- 
ate branches, to the two lungs, and hence called the 
pulmonary artery.* In the innumerable branches 
of this artery expanding themselves throughout the 
substance of the lungs, the dark blood is subjected 
to the contact of the air inhaled in breathing ; and a 
change in the composition both of the blood and of 

* Taking the nature of the blood for our guide, the pulmonary 
artery ought to be named the pulmonary vein, for it contains 
venous blood : but from its structure and office resembling 
those of the arteries, it has been called an artery. The pul- 
monary veiyis, on the other hand, contain arterial blood, although 
named -veins. To prevent confusion, it is necessary to advert to 
this sou rce of ambiguity. 



166 NATURE OF RESPIRATION. 

the inhaled air takes place, m consequence oi which 
the former is found to have assumed its florid or 
arterial hue, and to have regained its power of sup- 
porting life. The blood then enters minute venous 
ramifications, which gradually coalesce into larger 
branches, and at last terminate in four large trunks 
in the left side of the heart ; whence the blood in its 
, arterial form is again distributed over the body, to 
pursue the same course and undergo the same 
changes as before. 

There are thus two distinct circulations, each 
carried on by its own system of vessels : the one, 
from the left side of the heart to every part of the 
body, and back to the right side ; and the other* 
from the right side of the heart to the two lungs, 
and back to the left. The former has for its object 
nutrition and the maintenance of life ; and the latter 
the restoration of the deteriorated blood, and the 
animalization or assimilation of the chyle from which 
that fluid is formed. 

As the food cannot become a part of the living 
animal, or the venous blood regain its lost proper- 
ties until they have undergone the requisite changes 
in the air-cells of the lungs, the function of respira- 
tion, by which these are effected, is one of pre-emi- 
nent importance in the animal economy, and well 
deserves the most careful examination. The term 
respiration is frequently restricted to the mere inha- 
lation and expiration of air from the lungs ; but 
more generally it is employed to designate the 
whole series of phenomena which occurs in these 
organs. The words sanguification, and aeration of 
the blood are other forms of expression occasionally 
used to denote that part of the process in which the 
blood, by exposure to the action of the air, passes 
from the venous to the arterial state ; and, as the 
chyle does not become assimilated to the blood 
until it has passed through the lungs, the term san- 
guification, or blood-making, is not unaptly applied* , 



STRUCTURE OF THE LUNGS. 167 

list quantity and quality of the blood have a most 
direct ,*nd material influence upon the condition of 
every part of the body. If the quantity sent to the 
arm, for example, be diminished by tying the artery 
through which it is conveyed, the arm, being then 
imperfectly nourished, wastes away, and does not 
regain its plumpness till the full supply of blood be 
restored In like manner, when the quality of that 
fluid is impaired by deficiency of food, bad digestion, 
impure air-, or imperfect sanguification in the lungs, 
the body and all its functions becouie more or less 
disordered. Thus, in consumption, death takes 
place chiefly in consequence of respiration not 
being sufficiently perfect to admit of the formation 
of proper blood in the lungs. 

A knowledge of the structure and functions of the 
lungs, and of the conditions favourable to their 
healthy action^ is, therefore, very important ; for on 
their welfare depends that of every organ of the 
body. And when we recollect that, in the British 
Isles alone, no«irly fifty thousand persons fall vic- 
tims annually xo pulmonary consumption, and that 
these are chiefly among the young and most gifted, 
we cannot bul feel deeply interested in obtaining 
some acquaintance with the organization which is 
the seat of that affection, and with the conditions 
most conducive to the due performance of its func- 
tions and the preservation of its health. 

The exposure of the blood to the action of the 
air seems to be indispensable to every variety of 
animated creatures. In man and the more perfect 
of the lower animals it is carried on in the lungs, the 
structure of which is admirably adapted for the pur- 
pose. In many animals, however, the requisite ac- 
tion is effected without the intervention of lungs. 
In fishes, for example, which live in a dense medium, 
and do not breathe, the blood circulates through the 
gills, which, being constantly and directly in con- 
tact with the water, are therefore more accessible 



168 STRUCTURE OF THE LUNGS. 

to the action of the air which the water contains, 
and much better adapted than lungs would be to 
the medium in which fishes live. In worms, on 
the other hand, and many similar animals, no dis- 
tinct organ is set apart for the purpose, but the 
aeration of the blood takes place at the surface of 
the body by means of pores in the skin called spira- 
cula, specially adapted to this end, and which cannot 
be shut up or obstructed any more than the real 
lungs or giils without inducing death. So neces- 
sary, indeed, is atmospheric air to the vitality of the 
blood in all classes of animals, that its abstraction 
inevitably induces death ; and a fish can no moro 
live in water deprived of air than a man could do in 
an atmosphere devoid of oxygen. And thus the 
fish requires a renewal of air, and perishes when it 
is denied, exactly as man does in similar circum- 
stances. 

In man, the lungs are those large, light, spongy 
bodies which, along w ith the heart, completely fill 
the two lateral cavities of the chest. They vary 
much in size in different persons, and, as the chest 
is formed for their protection, we find it either large 
and capacious, or the reverse, according to the size 
which the lungs have attained. Their position re- 
latively to the other viscera may be understood on 
reference to the subjoined woodcut, which repre- 
sents the various organs of the chest and belly as 
they appear on removing the integuments, breast- 
bone, and part of the ribs. The sketch is rather 
rude, but it will serve the purpose. The letters R L 
and L L mark the right and left lungs, with H the 
heart lying between them, but chiefly on the left 
side. V is an inaccurate representation of the 
large blood-vessels going to the head, neck, and 
superior extremities. Liv r is the liver, lying in 
the abdomen or belly, and separated from the 
chest by the arched fleshy partition D D, called 
the diaphragm or midriff. The stomach appears on 



STRUCTURE OF THE LUNGS. 



169 



the other side, marked St m , but both it and the liver 
are removed a little from their natural situation. G 
is the gall-bladder. Ill are the various parts of the 
intestinal canal through which the food is passed on 
its way from the stomach, by what is called the pe- 
ristaltic or vermicular motion of the bowel, one circle 
of fibres narrowing after another, so as to propel its 
contents slowly but steadily, and resembling in some 
degree the contraction of a common worm. 




, f#0 STRUCTURE OF THE LUNGS. 

The substance of the lungs consists of bronchial 
tubes, air-cells, blood-vessels, nerves, and cellular 
membrane, or parenchyma. The first are merely 
continuations and subdivisions of the windpipe, and 
serve to convey the external air to the air-cells 
of the lungs. The air-cells constitute the chief part 
of the pulmonary tissue, and are in one sense the 
terminations of the smaller branches of the bron- 
chial tubes. When fully distended, they are so nu- 
merous as in appearance to constitute almost the 
whole lung. They are of various sizes, from the 
20th to the 100th of an inch in diameter, and are 
lined with an exceedingly fine thin membrane, on 
which the minute capillary branches of the pulmo- 
nary arteries and veins are copiously ramified ; and 
it is while circulating in the small vessels of this 
membrane, and there exposed to the air, that the 
blood undergoes the change from the venous to the 
arterial state. So prodigiously numerous are these 
air-cells that the aggregate extent of their lining 
membrane in man has been computed to exceed a 
surface of 20,000 square inches. 

It may be thought that the interposition of such 
a membrane must have the effect of preventing any 
action of the air upon the blood. But, in addition 
to the proof to the contrary drawn from observa- 
tion, it has been ascertained by experiment that 
even the thick and firm texture of bladder is insuf- 
ficient to prevent the occurrence of the change; 
venous blood confined in a bladder speedily becom 
ing of a florid red, like arterial blood. 

Blood-vessels necessarily form a large constituent 
portion of the substance of the lungs. Besides the 
arteries and veins which the lungs possess in com- 
mon with other parts for the purposes of nutrition, 
they have, as we have seen, the large pulmonary 
arteries and veins, dividing everywhere through 
their substance into innumerable branches, convey- 
ing the whole blood of the body to and from the air- 



PREDISPOSITION TO PULMONARY DISEASE. 171 

cells, and therefore of a magnitude proportioned to 
the quantity of blood which is destined to pass 
through them. 

These two tissues, air-tubes and blood-vessels, 
together with the loose cellular texture or net- 
work which binds them together, called paren- 
chyma, form the whole of the structure peculiar to 
the lungs. But, like all other living parts, they are 
provided also with nerves, without the active co- 
operation of which, in supplying the requisite ner 
vous stimulus, the special functions of the lungs, and 
consequently life itself, would speedily cease. 

Every one must have remarked the copious exha- 
lation of moisture which takes place in breathing, 
and which presents a striking analogy to the exha- 
lation from the surface of the skin. In the former 
as in the latter instance, the exhalation is carried on 
by the innumerable minute capillary vessels, in 
which the small arterial branches terminate in the 
air-cells. This can be made evident after death, by 
injecting any of the arterial branches with water, 
turpentine, or quicksilver, when the injection will be 
seen to exude in minute points, on the surface of 
the lining membrane of the air-cells. The pulmo- 
nary exhalation, however, must not thence be sup- 
posed to be a mere physical or mechanical exuda- 
tion. It is the result of a vital process, and is sub- 
ject to the ordinary laws of vital action. 

Absorption, in like manner, takes place from the 
lining membrane of the lungs, as we have seen it do 
n the skin. When a person breathes an atmo* 
sphereloaded with fumes of spirits, of tobacco, of 
turpentine, or of any other volatile substance, a 
portion of the fumes is taken up by the absorbing 
vessels of the lungs, and carried into the system, 
and there produces precisely the same effects as if 
introduced into the stomach. It has occasionally 
happened that a person has unwarily become intox- 
icated in this way; and the lungs thus become a 



172 CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR 

ready inlet to contagion, miasmata, and other 
poisonous influences diffused through the air which 
we breathe. 

From this general explanation of the structure and 
uses of the lungs, it will be obvious, that several 
conditions, which it is our interest specially to know 
and observe, are essential to the healthy perform- 
ance of the important function of respiration. First 
among these we may rank a healthy original form- 
ation of the lungs. No fact in medicine is better 
established than that which proves the hereditary 
transmission from parents to children of a constitu- 
tional liability to pulmonary disease, and especially 
to consumption ; yet no condition is less attended 
to in forming matrimonial engagements. The 
children of scrofulous and consumptive parents are 
generally precocious, and their minds being early 
matured, they engage early in the business of life, 
and often enter upon the married state before their 
bodily frame has had time to consolidate. For a 
few years every thing seems to go on prosperously, 
and a numerous family gathers around them. All 
at once, however, while still very young, their plrys- 
ical powers begin to give way, and they drop pre- 
maturely into the grave, exhausted by consumption, 
and leaving children behind them, destined in all 
probability either to be cut off as they approach 
maturity, or to run through the same delusive but 
fatal career as that of the parents from whom they 
derived their existence. 

Many examples of this kind might be pointed out 
among the higher classes of society, who are not 
restrained from following their predominant incli- 
nations, by any necessit}^ of seeking subsistence in 
professional pursuits. And many instances might 
be referred to, in which no regard was shown to the 
manifest existence of the same disposition in the 
family of either parent, and in which, consequently, 
the marriage state was imbittered either by barren- 



EFFICIENT RESPIRATION. 173 

ness, which is then the most favourable result, or 
by the prevalence of disease and delicacy in the 
progeny. It may not be easy to enforce upon the 
young and inexperienced the requisite degree of 
attention to these circumstances ; but surely educa- 
tion, especially when backed by example, might do 
much, if the young were properly instructed, at an 
early period, in the leading facts and principles of the 
human constitution. Where there are hereditary 
precocity and delicacy of frame, marriage, instead 
of being hastened, ought invariably to be delayed at 
least till the fullest maturity and consolidation of the 
system : otherwise the consequences will be equally 
unhappy for the individual and for his future progeny. 
During growth, and for a considerable time after 
growth has ceased, the constitution is still imper- 
fect, even in healthy subjects, and wants the en- 
during strength which it afterward acquires in 
mature age, and the possession of which marks the 
period which nature has fixed for the exercise of 
the functions of reproduction. Many young people 
of both sexes fall sacrifices to early marriages, who 
might have withstood the ordinary risks of life, and 
lived together in happiness, if they had delayed their 
union for a few years, and allowed time for the 
consolidation of their constitutions. 

I have urged this point strongly, because heredi- 
tary predisposition is, avowedly and beyond all doubt, 
the most frequent source of the more serious forms of 
pulmonary disease, and it would be worse than folly to 
allow past and painful experience to go for nothing. 
Medical men have much in their power in prevent- 
ing such violations of the laws of the Creator, at 
least where they are regarded, as they always ought 
to be, as the friends as well as the professional 
advisers of the family. 

The second requisite to the well-being of the lungs, 
and to the free and salutary exercise of respiration, 
is a due supply of rich and healthy blood. When, 
P2 



174 CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR 

from defective food, or impaired digestion, the blood 
is impoverished in quality and rendered unfit for 
adequate nutrition, the lungs speedily suffer, and 
that often to a fatal extent. So certain is this fact, 
that, in the lower animals, tubercles (the cause of 
incurable consumption) can be produced in the lungs 
to almost any extent, by withholding a sufficiency of 
nourishing food. The same circumstances operate 
to a lamentable extent among the poorly fed popu- 
lation of our manufacturing towns ; whereas it is pro- 
verbial that butchers, — a class of men w T ho eat 
animal food twice or thrice a day, and live much in 
the open air, are almost exempt from pulmonary 
consumption. Among the higher classes, again, the 
blood is impoverished, and the lungs are injured, not 
from want of food, bvXfrom want of the power of ade- 
quately digesting it ; and hence we find in every 
treatise on consumption, a section devoted espe- 
cially to "dyspeptic phthisis" as it is called, or sim- 
ply " consumption from bad digestion." The late 
hours, heavy meals, and deficient exercise which 
are so generally complained of, but still so regularly 
adhered to in society, are the chief sources of the 
evils to which we are now alluding. 

Thirdly. — The free and easy expansion of the 
chest is obviously indispensable to the full play and 
dilatation of the lungs : whatever impedes it, either 
in dress or in position, is prejudicial to health ; and, 
on the other hand, whatever favours the free ex- 
pansion of the chest equally promotes the healthy 
fulfilment of the respiratory functions. Stays, cor- 
sets, and tight waist-bands operate most injuriously. 
by compressing the thoracic cavity and impeding 
the due dilatation of the lungs ; and, in many in- 
stances, they give rise to consumption. I have seen 
one case, in which the liver was actually indented 
by the excessive pressure, and long continued bad 
health and ultimately death were the results. In 
allusion to this subject, Mr. Thackrah mentions, 



EFFICIENT RESPIRATION. 175 

that men can exhale, at one effort, from six to ten 
pints of air, whereas in women the average is only 
from two to four pints. In ten females, free from 
disease, whom he examined, about the age of 18£, 
the quantity of air thrown out averaged 3 J pints ; 
while, in young men of the same age, he found it 
amount to six pints. Some allowance is to be made 
for natural differences in the two sexes, but enough 
remains to show a great diminution of capacity, 
which can be ascribed to no other cause than the 
use of stays. But having discussed this matter 
when treating of the muscular system, it is unne- 
cessary to enlarge on it again, further than to 
remark, that the constrained motionless attitudes 
enforced upon young females in the course of educa- 
tion are very unfavourable to the play of the lungs 
and to the full development of the chest. 

The admirable harmony established by the Crea- 
tor between the various constituent parts of the 
animal frame, renders it impossible to pay regard to 
or infringe the conditions required for the health of 
any one, without all the rest participating in the 
benefit or injury. Thus, while cheerful exercise in 
the open air and in the society of equals is directly 
and eminently conducive to the well-being of the 
muscular system, the advantage does not stop there ; 
the beneficent Creator having kindly so ordered it, 
that the same exercise shall be scarcely less advan- 
tageous to the proper performance of the important 
function of respiration. Active exercise calls the 
lungs into play, favours their expansion, promotes 
the circulation of the blood through their substance, 
and leads to their complete and healthy develop- 
ment. The same end is greatly facilitated by that 
free and vigorous exercise of the voice which so 
uniformly accompanies and enlivens the spqr,ts of 
the young, and which doubles the benefits derived 
from them considered as exercise. The excitement 
of the social and moral feelings among children 



176 CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR 

engaged in play is another powerful tonic, the influ- 
ence of which on the general health ought not to be 
overlooked ; foi the nervous influence is as indis- 
pensable to the right performance of respiration, as 
it is to the action of the muscles or to the digestion 
of food. 

This latter principle explains the reason why the 
depressing passions predispose to pulmonary con 
sumption, a fact which has been remarked from a 
very early period. "When the mind is in a state of 
depression, the whole nervous functions become 
enfeebled ; and the stimulus to the other organs, on 
which so much of their vital power depends, is im- 
paired, and a general want of tone pervades the 
system, rendering the principal organs of the body, 
and the lungs among the rest, unusually susceptible 
of disease. Here, again, we may perceive the beau- 
tiful adaptation of all the functions to each other, 
and the exquisite harmony of design which has pre- 
sided over the original construction of the body. 

It is curious indeed to trace the relations in which 
the animal functions stand to each other. Grief, 
sorrow, fear, and other depressing passions of the 
mind, diminish the activity of the circulation, im- 
pair respiration, lower vitality, and consequently 
render the organization more than usually suscep- 
tible of diseases arising from diminished action. 
Anger, joy, and the other exhilarating passions, on 
the other hand, stimulate the circulation, quicken 
respiration, increase the vital powers, and create a 
proneness to inflammatory or excited action. At 
first sight, it may seem strange that such should be 
the results of different kinds of mental emotion. On 
examination, however, we perceive evident design 
in the arrangement, The tendency of grief, despond- 
ency, and sorrow is to produce meditative inaction. 
These emotions require no exertion of the bodily 
powers, and no unusual expenditure of vital energy : 
but rather the reverse. This* it will be observed, 



EFFICIENT RESPIRATION. 177 

is a condition incompatible with a quick supply of 
blood, or a high degree of respiration ; for if these 
were conjoined, they would only give rise to an 
amount of bodily activity at variance with the ab- 
sorbed and inactive state of the mind. The nature 
of the exciting passions, again, is to impel us vigor- 
ously to action ; but action cannot be sustained with- 
out a full supply of highly oxygenated blood, and hence 
a very manifest reason for the quick respiration and 
accelerated circulation which attend mental excite- 
ment. Great depression of mind thus leads naturally 
to imperfect respiration, a more sluggish flow of 
blood, and the various diseases of diminished vi- 
tality; while great excitement induces full respira- 
tion, quickened circulation, and the various diseases 
of exalted vitality. These principles show the para- 
mount importance, in the treatment of disease, of 
carefully regulating the mental state of the patient, 
according to the object we have in view. 

A fourth essential condition of healthy respira- 
tion remains to be noticed, viz. a regular supply of 
vure fresh air, without which the requisite changes 
in the constitution of the blood, as it passes through 
the lungs, cannot be effected. To enable the reader 
to appreciate this condition, we must premise some 
remarks on the nature of the changes alluded to. 

Atmospheric air consists of nearly 79 per cent. 
of nitrogen or azotic gas, 21 per cent, of oxygen, 
and not quite 1 per cent, of carbonic acid or fixed 
air : and such is its constitution when taken into 
the lungs in the act of breathing. When it is ex- 
pelled from them, however, its composition is found 
to be greatly altered. The quantity of nitrogen re- 
mains nearly the same, but 8 or 84 per cent, of the 
oxygen or vital air has disappeared, and been re- 
placed by an equal amount of carbonic acid. In addi- 
tion to these changes, the expired air is loaded with 
moisture. Simultaneously with these occurrences, 
the blood collected from the veins, which entered 



178 CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR 

the lungs of a dark colour and unfit for the support 
of life, assumes a florid red hue, and acquires the 
power of supporting life. 

It is not easy to offer a satisfactory explanation 
of the processes by which these changes are ef- 
fected in the lungs. According to one view, the 
carbonic acid contained in expired air is formed by 
the secretion of carbon from the venous blood in its 
passage through the lungs, winch immediately unites 
with the oxygen of the air, and forms carbonic acid, 
in which shape it is then thrown out in expiration. 
According to the other view, the carbonic acid exists 
in, and is separated from, the venous blood in the 
state of acid, and the oxygen which disappears is 
absorbed into the circulating current. The former 
explanation was long received, but Dr. Edwards has 
lately advanced very strong grounds for adopting 
the latter. Whatever may be the true theory, all 
physiologists are agreed as to the fact that the arte- 
rialization of the blood in the lungs is essentially 
dependent on the supply of oxygen contained in the 
air which we breathe, and that air is fit or unfit for 
respiration in exact proportion as its quantity of 
oxygen approaches to, or differs from, that con- 
tained in pure air. If, consequently, we attempt to 
breathe nitrogen, hydrogen, or any other gas not 
containing oxygen, the result will be speedy suffo- 
cation ; whereas, if we breathe air containing a too 
high proportion of oxygen, the vital powers will 
speedily suffer from excess of stimulus. From oxy- 
gen being thus essential to life and respiration, it is 
often called vital air, in contradistinction to those 
gases which are incapable of supporting life. 

We can now appreciate the importance of a due 
supply of fresh air wherever living beings are con- 
gregated. In man, the rate of vitiation produced by 
breathing, and the relative importance of ventila- 
tion, may be easily estimated. An individual is 
ascertained to breathe, on an average, from 14 to 20 



EFFICIENT RESPIRATION. 179 

times in a minute, and to inhale from 15 to 40 cubic 
inches of air at each inspiration. Sir H. Davy and 
others rate the quantity so low as from 13 to 17 
inches; but most observers agree with Dr. Menzies, 
who experimented with great care, in estimating it at 
40 inches. The quantity, however, varies much in 
different individuals. 

Even taking the consumpt of air at 20 inches, as 
a very low medium, and rating the number of inspi- 
rations at 15, it appears that, in the space of one 
minute, no less than 300 cubic inches of air are re- 
quired for the respiration of a single person. In 
the same space of time, 24 cubic inches of oxygen 
disappear, and are replaced by an equal amount of 
carbonic acid ; so that in the course of an hour one 
pair of lungs will, at a low estimate, vitiate the air 
by the subtraction of no less than 1440 cubic inches 
of oxygen, and the addition of an equal number of 
carbonic acid, thus constituting a source of impurity 
which cannot be safely overlooked. 

The fatal effects of breathing highly vitiated air 
may easily be made the subject of experiment. 
When a mouse is confined in a large and tight glass 
jar full of air, it seems for a short time to experience 
no inconvenience ; but in proportion as the consump- 
tion of oxygen and the • exhalation of carbonic acid 
proceed, it begins to show symptoms of uneasiness, 
and to pant in its breathing, as if struggling for air ; 
and in a few hours it dies, convulsed exactly as if 
drowned or strangulated. The same results follow 
the deprivation or vitiation of air in man and in all 
animated beings ; and in hanging, death results not 
from dislocation of the neck, as is often supposed, 
but simply from the interruption to breathing pre- 
venting the necessary changes taking place in the 
constitution of the blood. 

The horrible fate of the Englishmen who were 
shut up in the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756 
is strikingly illustrative of the destructive conse- 



80 EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 

quences of an inadequate supply of air. 146 in 
number were thrust into a confined place, 18 feet 
square. There were only two very small windows 
by which air could be admitted, and as both of them 
were on the same side, ventilation was utterly im- 
possible. Scarcely was the door shut upon the 
prisoners when their sufferings commenced, and in 
a short time a delirious and mortal struggle ensued 
to get near the windows. Within four hours, those 
who survived lay in the silence of apoplectic stupor ; 
and at the end of six hours, ninety -six were relieved 
by death ! In the morning when the door was opened, 
23 only were found alive, many of whom were sub- 
sequently cut off by putrid fever, caused by the dread- 
ful effluvia and corruption of the air. 

This tremendous example ought not to be lost 
upon us. If the results arising from the vitiation 
of the air to an extreme degree be so appalling, we 
may rest assured that those arising from every 
lesser degree, although they may be less obvious, 
are not less certain in their operation. It is, indeed, 
readily admitted in the abstract, that a constant sup- 
ply of pure air is indispensable to the healthy per- 
formance of respiration ; but if we inquire how far 
this condition is attended to by mankind at large, we 
shall have no reason to think the present warning 
unnecessary. I have already noticed (at p. 19) the 
case of Captain Ganson who was suffocated in the 
cabin of the Magnus Troil in Leith Harbour on 1st 
March, 1833, and whose brother was recovered with 
great difficulty from a state of stupor, induced ap- 
parently by an insufficient supply of respirable air. 
To these instances another may be added from the 
Globe newspaper of 1st April, in which it is men- 
tioned, that the captain and mate of the French 
Chasse maree Rcyaliste lost their lives from suffo- 
cation in the harbour of Jerse)^ in a precisely simi- 
lar way. In both vessels the cabin w r as very small, 
and the door having been carefully shut, the access 
of fresh au was completely prevented. 



EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 181 

I do not mean to say, that in these cases the fatal 
results were attributable exclusively to vitiation of 
the air by breathing. Fixed air may have been dis- 
engaged also from some other source ; but the de- 
teriorating influence of respiration, where no venti- 
lation is perceptible, cannot be doubted. According 
to Dr. Bostock's estimate, for example, an average 
sized man consumes about 45,000 cubic inches of 
oxygen, and gives out about 40,000 of carbonic aci 
in 24 hours, or 18,750 of oxygen and 16,666 of car- 
bonic acid in ten hours, which was nearly the time 
which the sufferers had remained in the cabin before 
they were found. As they were two in number, the 
quantity of oxygen which would have been required 
for their consumption was of course equal to 37,500 
cubic inches, while the carbonic acid given out 
would amount to upwards of 32,000 inches — a source 
of impurity manifestly quite equal to the production 
of serious consequences to those exposed to it ; and 
which no one, properly acquainted with the consti- 
tution of his own body and with the conditions 
essential to healthy respiration, would ever have 
willingly encountered. It is no argument to say 
that the cause of death must have been some dis- 
engagement of gas within the vessel : for, even 
granting this to have been the case, it is still certain 
that, had the means of ventilation been adequately 
provided, this gas would have been so much diluted, 
and so quickly dispersed, that it would have been 
comparatively innoxious. 

In the construction of our houses, the laws of 
respiration are often glaringly infringed, especially 
in towns. The public rooms, which can be easily 
ventilated at any time, — which are in fact ventilated 
by the constant opening and shutting of the door, 
and by the draught of the chimney, — and in which, 
therefore, large dimensions are less necessary for 
salubrity, are always the most spacious and airy. 
The bed-rooms, oil the other hand,. in which, from 
Q 



- 182 EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT FKNTILATION. 

the doors being shut, and from there being no current 
of air in the whole sev^n or eight hours during which 
they are occupied, the vitiation of the air is the 
greatest, and in which, consequently, size is most 
required, are uniformly the smallest and most con- 
fined ; and, as if this source of impurity were not 
sufficient, we still farther reduce the already too 
limited space, by surrounding the bed closely w T ith 
curtains, for the express purpose of preventing ven- 
tilation, and keeping us enveloped in the same 
heated atmosphere. Can any thing be imagined 
more directly at variance than this with the funda- 
mental laws of respiration ? Or could such prac- 
tices ever have been resorted to, had the nature of 
the human constitution been regarded before they 
were adopted 1 In this respect we are more humane 
towards the lower animals than towards our own 
species ; for, notwithstanding all the refinements of 
civilization, we have not yet aggravated the want 
of ventilation in the stable or the cow-house, by 
adding curtains to the individual stalls of the in- 
mates. 

So little, however, are we taught to think of the 
nature and wants of the human constitution, that in 
Edinburgh we have instances of large public rooms, 
capable of holding from 800 to 1000 persons, built 
within these few years, without any means of ade- 
quate ventilation being provided. This could not 
have happened, had either the architects or their 
employers known any thing of the laws of the hu- 
man constitution. When these rooms are crowded, 
and the meeting lasts for some hours, especially if 
it be in winter, the consequences are sufficiently 
marked. Either such a multitude must be subjected 
to all the evils of a contaminated and unwholesome 
atmosphere, or they must be partially relieved by 
opening the windows, and allowing a continued 
stream of cold air to pour down upon the heated 
bodies of those who are near them, till the latter are 



EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 183 

thoroughly chilled, and perhaps fatal illness is in- 
duced; and, unfortunately, even at such a price, the 
relief is only partial; for the windows being all on 
one side of the room, and not extending much above 
half-way to the ceiling, complete ventilation is im- 
practicable. 

In dwelling-houses lighted by gas, the frequent 
renewal of the air acquires increased importance 
A single gas-burner will consume more oxygen, an 
produce more carbonic acid to deteriorate the atmo- 
sphere of a room, than six or eight candles. If, 
therefore, where several burners are used, no pro- 
vision be made for the escape of the corrupted air, 
and for the introduction of pure air from without, 
the health will necessarily suffer. A ventilator 
placed over the burners, like an inverted funnel, and 
opening into the chimney, is an efficient and easy 
remedy for the former evil ; and a small tube form- 
ing a communication between the external air and 
the room would supply fresh air, where necessary. 
The tube might be made to pass, like a distiller's 
worm, through a vessel containing hot water, by 
which means the air might be heated, in very cold 
weather, before being thrown into the room, and 
thus the danger arising from cold draughts and in- 
equalities of temperature be avoided. 

Many of our churches and schools are extremely 
ill ventilated ; and accordingly it is observed, that 
fainting and hysterics occur in churches much more 
frequently in the afternoon than in the forenoon, be- 
cause the air is then in its maximum of vitiation. 
Indeed, it is impossible to look around us in a 
crowded church, towards the close of the service, 
without perceiving the effects of deficient air in the 
expression of the features of every one present. 
Either a relaxed sallow paleness of the surface, or 
ihe hectic flush of fever, is observable ; and, as the 
necessary accompaniment, a sensation of mental 



184 EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 

and bodily lassitude is felt, which is immediately 
relieved by getting into the open air. 

I have seen churches frequented by upwards of a 
thousand people, in which, in winter, not only no 
means of ventilation are employed during service, 
but even during the interval between the forenoon 
and afternoon services, the windows are kept as 
carefully closed as if deadly contagion lay outside, 
watching for an opportunity to enter by the first open 
chink, and where, consequently, the congregation 
must inhale, for two or three hours in the afternoon, 
an exceedingly corrupted air, and suffer the penalty 
in headaches, colds, bilious and nervous attacks. 

Few of our schools are well regulated in this re- 
spect. It is now several years since, on the occa- 
sion of a visit to one of the classes of a great 
public seminary, my attention was first strongly 
attracted to the injury resulting to the mental and 
bodily functions from the inhalation of impure air. 
About 1*50 boys were assembled in one large room, 
where they had been already confined nearly an 
hour and a half when I entered. The windows 
were partly open; but, notwithstanding this, the 
change from the fresh atmosphere outside to the 
close contaminated air within was obvious to every 
sense, and most certainly was not without its effect 
on the mind itself, accompanied as it was with a 
sensation of fulness in the forehead, and slight head- 
ache. The boys, with every motive to activity that 
an excellent system and an enthusiastic teacher 
could bestow, presented an aspect of weariness and 
fatigue which the mental stimulus they were under 
could not overcome, and which recalled forcibly 
sensations long bygone, which I had experienced to 
a woful extent, when seated on the benches of the 
same school. 

These observations stirred up a train of reflec- 
tions ; and when I called to mind the freshness and 
alacrity with which, when at school, our morning 



EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 185 

operations were carried on, the gradual approach 
to languor and yawning which took place as the day 
advanced, and the almost instant resuscitation of the 
whole energies of mind and body that ensued on 
our dismissal, I could not help thinking that, even 
after making every necessary deduction for the men- 
tal fatigue of the lessons^ and the inaction of body, 
a great deal of the comparative listlessness and in- 
difference was owing to the continued inhalation of 
an air too much vitiated to be able to afford the 
requisite stimulus to the blood, on which last con- 
dition the efficiency of the brain so essentially de- 
pends. This became the more probable, on recol- 
lecting the pleasing excitement occasionally expe- 
rienced for a few moments, from the rush of fresh 
air which took place when the door was opened to 
admit some casual visiter. Indeed, on referring to 
the symptoms induced by breathing carbonic acid 
gas or fixed air, it is impossible not to perceive that 
the headache, languor, and debility consequent on 
confinement in an ill-ventilated apartment, or in air 
vitiated by many people, are nothing but minor de- 
grees of the same process of poisoning which en- 
sues on immersion in fixed air. Of this latter state, 
" great heaviness in the head, tingling in the ears, 
troubled sight, a great inclination to sleep, diminution 
of strength, and falling doivn," are stated by Orfila as 
the chief symptoms,* and every one knows how 
closely these resemble what is felt m crowded halls. 
Another instance of the noxious influence of viti- 
ated air, which made a very strong impression on 
my mind, was during a three hours' service in a 
crowded country church, in a warm Sunday in July. 
The windows were all shut, and in consequence 
the open door was of little use in purifying the atmo- 
sphere, which was unusually contaminated, not oily 
by the respiration of so many people, but by li& 

• Taxicologie, iL 423, 
Q9 



186 EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 

very abundant perspiration from the skin excited 
by the heat and confinement. Few of the lower 
classes, either in town or country, extend their 
cleanliness beyond the washing of the hands and 
face. Hence the cutaneous exudation, in such 
persons, is characterized by a strong and nau- 
seous smell, which, when concentrated, as it was on 
this occasion, becomes absolutely overpowering. 
Accordingly, at the conclusion of the service, there 
was heard one general buzz of complaint of head- 
ache, sickness, and oppression; and the reality of 
the suffering was amply testified by the pale and 
wearied appearance even of the most robust. 

One of the evils of ignorance is, that we often 
sin and suffer the punishment, without being aware 
that we are sinning, and that it is in our power to 
escape the suffering by avoiding the sin. For many 
generations, mankind have experienced the evil re- 
sults of deficient ventilation, especially in towns, 
and suffered the penalty of delicate health, head- 
aches, fevers, consumptions, cutaneous and nervous 
diseases ; and yet, from ignorance of the true nature 
and importance of the function of respiration, and 
of the great consumption of air in its performance, 
architects have gone on planning and constructing 
edifices and houses, without bestowing a thought on 
the means of supplying them with fresh air, although 
animal life cannot be carried on without it : and 
while ingenuity and science have been taxed to the 
uttermost to secure a proper supply of water, the 
admission of pure air, though far more essential, 
has been left to steal in like a thief in the night, 
through any hole it can find open. In constructing 
hospitals, indeed, ventilation has been thought of, 
because a notion is prevalent that the sick require 
fresh air, and cannot recover without it; but it 
seems not to have been perceived, that what is in- 
dispensable for the recovery of the sick may be not 
less advantageous in preserving from sickness those 



EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 187 

who are well. Were a general knowledge of the 
structure of man to constitute a regular part of a 
libera] education, such inconsistencies as this would 
soon disappear, and the scientific architect would 
speedily devise the best means for supplying our 
houses with pure air, as he has already supplied them 
with pure water. 

That these remarks are not uncalled for, even as 
regards hospitals, may be conceived from the sub- 
joined quotations from the Lancet of *29th Decem- 
ber, 1832. After narrating a case of a patient who 
was carried off by pleurisy, while under treatment 
by Dr. Elliotson, in St. Thomas's Hospital, for dis- 
ease of pylorus, the reporter gives his opinion, that 
the pleurisy " was most likely occasioned by the ex- 
treme draughts of this ward. There is a great cur- 
rent of air in the ward ; and I have seen many per- 
sons in it suffer very much indeed." In a note, it 
is added, " The number of patients ivho are thus carried 
off yearly forms a startling list to be laid before the 
eyes of the governors of this institution. Such results 
are shamefully frequent." I fear there are many 
other hospitals as much in need of improvement in 
this respect as that of St. Thomas's. 

As a contrast to the above case, it is gratifying 
to observe the care which has been taken to effect 
a thorough and safe ventilation in fitting up the new 
surgical wards of the Edinburgh Infirmary, which 
may serve as a specimen of what ought to be done, 
not only with all public institutions, but I may add 
with all private dwellings. In these wards fresh air 
s introduced by large circular openings in the floor, 
and the vitiated air escapes by similar openings if, 
the roof. The apparatus is so constructed as to 
admit of the air being heated in winter before il 
enters the ward, by which means all danger from 
cold currents is prevented. 

That the evils which sound physiology would 
lead us to anticipate from frequently breathing im- 



188 EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 

pure air actually occur, is not a matter of doubt. 
Among other writers, Mr. Thackrah, in his excel- 
lent little work on the effects of trades and profes- 
sions on health, expresses himself strongly to this 
effect, and specially notices that dyspeptic symptoms 
are often the first indications of the commencing 
disease, and that the lungs suffer only after the di- 
gestive system has been for a time disordered. It 
may not be easy to explain why the stomach and 
bowels should suffer even sooner than the lungs 
themselves, from a cause which seems exclusively 
directed to the latter ; but observation substantiates 
the fact, and it is one of much interest in enabling 
us to trace to their true sources many of the forms 
of bad health prevalent in the middle ranks of life. 

Although, however, the first effects are so often 
referable to the stomach, the lungs and general 
system sooner or later become implicated. An in- 
dividual possessing a strong constitution may indeed 
withstand the bad consequences of occasionally 
breathing an impure atmosphere, but even he will 
suffer for the time. He will not experience the 
same amount of mischief from it as the invalid, but 
will be perfectly conscious of a temporary feeling 
of discomfort, the very purpose of which is, like 
pain from a blow, to impel him to shun the danger, 
and seek relief in a purer air. The comparative 
harmlessness of a single exposure is the circum- 
stance which blinds us to the magnitude of the ul- 
timate result, and makes us fancy ourselves safe and 
prudent, when every day is surely though imper- 
ceptibly adding to the sum of the mischief. But 
let any one who doubts the importance of this con- 
dition of health watch the dyspeptic, the pulmonary, 
or the nervous invalid through a season devoted to 
attendance on crowded parties and public amuse- 
ments, and he will find the frequency of headaches, 
colds, and other fits of illness increase in exact pro- 
portion to the accumulated exposure, till, at the end 



EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 189 

of spring, a general debility has been induced, which 
imperatively demands a cessation of festivity and a 
change of scene and air. This debility is often ig- 
norantly ascribed to the unwholesome influence of 
spring, — a season extolled by the poet, not as a 
cause of relaxation and feebleness, but as the dis- 
penser of renovated life and vigour to all created 
beings. 

It is in vain to warn such persons beforehand 
that Nature is always consistent, and that if bad air 
be really unfit for healthy respiration, it must be 
detrimental to them, and to all who breathe it ; and 
that its ill effects are not less real because at first 
gradual and unperceived in their approach. They 
know too little of the animal economy and of na- 
ture's laws, and are too much devoted to their own 
object, to be impressed by cautions of this kind ; and, 
in looking forward to the ball-room or crowded 
evening-party, few of them will believe that any 
possible connexion can exist between breathing its 
vitiated atmosphere and the headaches, indigestion, 
and cutaneous eruptions which so frequently follow, 
and to be delivered from which they would sacrifice 
almost every other enjoyment. 

If it be said that nobody will be troubled with all 
this trifling care, and that thousands who expose 
themselves in every way nevertheless enjoy good 
health and a long life, I can only answer that it is 
true ; but that an infinitely greater proportion pass 
through life as habitual invalids, and scarcely know, 
from experience, what a day of good health really 
is. The late discussions on the Factory Bill have 
demonstrated, by an unassailable mass of evidence, 
that many circumstances, rarely considered as in- 
jurious, because they have no immediate effect in 
suddenly destroying life by acute diseases, have 
nevertheless a marked influence in slowly under- 
mining health and shortening humaii existence. 
There are trades, for example, at which workmen 



190 EFFECTS OF DEFICIENT VENTILATION. 

may labour for fifteen or twenty years without har- 
ing been a month confined by disease during all that 
time, and which are therefore said to be healthy 
trades ; and yet, when the investigation is pursued 
a little farther, it is found that the general health 
is so steadily, although imperceptibly, encroached 
upon, that scarcely a single workman survives his 
fortieth or fiftieth year. 

It is this insidious influence of impure air to 
which I am anxious to direct attention. So long as 
delicacy is the rule, and robust health the exception, 
especially among females, and so long as fifty or 
sixty thousand persons perish annually in Great 
Britain from consumption alone, it will be difficult 
to persuade any rational and instructed mind that 
every cause of disease is already removed, and that 
further care is superfluous. My own conviction, on 
the contrary, is, that by proper care, and a stricter 
observance of the laws of the animal economy on 
the part of the parents and guardians of the young, 
the development of the disease might be prevented 
in a large proportion of the number, and that even 
the robust would enjoy health in a higher degree, 
and with increased security. It is an instructive 
proof of this, that those who have directed their 
chief attention to training either man or animals for 
athletic exercises, or the race-course, have been led, 
by observation, to attach the utmost importance to 
pure air. Sir John Sinclair has been at pains to 
collect the rules followed by Jackson, the celebrated 
trainer, and others of the same profession ; and he 
tells us that, by all of them, the necessity of pure 
air is uniformly insisted upon. Sir John adds, that 
the same condition was deemed so essential by the 
ancients, that the Roman Athletae established their 
principal schools at Capua and Ravenna, as the 
most pure and healthy air of all Italy ; and that, in 
the training of race-horses, and even of game-cocks s 



SOURCES OF ANIMAL HEAT. 191 

the most sedulous attention is paid to the purity of 
the air in which they live. 

The necessity for adequate ventilation is nowhere 
more urgent than in many of our manufactories, 
where, from the length of time (varying from 10 to 
17 hours a day) during which the operatives are 
exposed to the evils of impure air, a great sacrifice 
of health and happiness is constantly going on. The 
dust floating in the air in cotton manufactories and 
spinning-mills, and produced in many trades, is a 
very serious aggravation of their* situation, as all 
foreign bodies thus inhaled into the lungs produce 
irritation in their structure, and sooner or later lead 
to the development of fatal pulmonary disease. 

In the third chapter, I pointed out the necessity 
of protecting the skin by suitable clothing, and men 
tioned the intimate relation which subsists between 
its function and those of the lungs. We have now 
to consider this subject a little further, as regards 
the origin and regulation of the animal heat. 

The true sources of animal heat are still imper- 
fectly known, and any discussion concerning them 
would be too abstract for the present volume. Its 
regular production, however, is an essential condition 
of life. If the human body did not possess within 
itself the power of generating heat, so as to maintain 
nearly an equality of temperature in all climates, it 
could not long exist. In winter, and especially in 
the northern regions, the blood would speedily be 
converted into a solid mass, and life be extinguished, 
if no provision existed for replacing the caloric 
withdrawn from the system by the surrounding cold. 
In most parts of the globe, the heat of the atmo- 
sphere is, even in summer, inferior to that of the 
human body, and consequently a loss of caloric is 
always going on, which must be made up in some 
way, otherwise disease and death would speedily 
ensue. In cholera a very remarkable diminution of 



192 CONNEXION BETWEEN RESPIRATION 

heat occurs, and a return to the natural temperature 
is an indispensable step towards recovery. 

The relation between the production of animal 
heat, and the condition of the respiratory func- 
tions, is the most direct and remarkable. In gene- 
ral, other conditions being alike, heat is generated 
more or less freely, in proportion to the size and 
vigour of the lungs ; and when these are impaired, 
the production of heat is diminished. Hence many 
persons with imperfectly developed lungs, and a 
predisposition to consumption, complain habitually 
of coldness of the surface and feet ; and many who 
were previously in good health become more and 
more sensible to cold, in proportion as the approach 
cf disease weakens the functions of the lungs. I 
have noticed this increased sensibility to cold, as a 
precursor of chronic pulmonary disease, both in my- 
self and others, before any other very ostensible 
symptom had appeared, and think I have seen its 
farther progress arrested by the timely use of 
proper means, where much greater difficulty would 
have been experienced had the warning not been 
attended to. 

The generation of heat in the living system being 
so immediately connected with the lungs, we find 
the temperature highest in those animals who pos- 
sess them in the greatest perfection, viz. birds. In 
many species, the internal heat exceeds that of man 
by twenty or thirty degrees ; while that of man ex 
ceeds, to as great an extent, the heat of such of the 
inferior animals as are remarkable for imperfect or- 
gans of respiration. 

The next condition affecting the production of 
animal heat is the co-operation of the nervous sys- 
tem. If the mind be depressed by grief, tormented 
by anxiety, or absorbed in sedentary meditation, all 
the bodily functions become weakened, the circula- 
tion languishes, the breathing becomes slow and 
scarcely perceptible, digestion is ill performed, and 



AND ANIMAL HEAT. 193 

coldness of the extremities ensues. If, on the other 
hand, the mind and nervous system be stimulated 
by cheerful exertion and agreeable emotions, a 
pleasant glow pervades the frame, and external cold 
is much more easily resisted. 

The quantity and quality of the food and state of 
the digestive functions are also important conditions. 
This will be readily assented to, when the reader 
considers that a due supply of well-formed chyle is 
required to restore the nourishing properties of the 
blood, and that if, in consequence either of insuf- 
ficient food or of weak digestion, this be rendered 
impossible, all the animal functions, among others 
the production of heat, must necessarily be impaired. 
This is the reason why cold is felt most severely in 
the morning before breakfast, and why coldness of 
the feet and chilliness of the surface are so gene- 
rally complained of in indigestion and bilious com- 
plaints. 

Everybody knows that exercise favours, and in- 
dolence obstructs, the development of animal heat. 
Exercise produces its effect by the general stimulus 
which it gives directly to the respiratory and circu- 
lating systems, and indirectly to the nervous and di- 
gestive functions. 

In attempting, therefore, to increase the power 
of resistance to cold in the human body, we ought 
to take into account all the conditions which favour 
the generation of heat. Observation proves thr.£ 
the degree of cold required to overcome the interna 
generating power, and to extinguish life, varies in 
the same individual at different times ; and there- 
fore our protecting measures also ought to be varied 
according to the state of the constitution, the vig- 
our of the respiratory and digestive functions, the 
kind of food, and the amount of exercise. When 
the food is inadequate, and the mind depressed, the 
system resists the impression of cold with great dif- 
ficulty ; and even in Scotland, where the tempera- 
R 



194 CONNEXION BETWEEN RESPIRATION 

ture is rarely very low, scarcely a winter passes 
without several instances of death occurring from 
exposure in ill-fed and ill-clothed individuals, even 
when the thermometer is above the freezing point. 
This happens usually when a high wind aids the 
rapid abstraction of heat. Well-fed and well-clothed 
guards of coaches, on the other hand, are remark- 
able examples of the power of withstanding low 
temperatures in very exposed situations, where the 
animal functions are in a state of vigour. The re- v 
cent Arctic expeditions under Parry and Franklin 
afford similar instances. 

Having already, when treating of the skin, suffi- 
ciently explained the principles on which clothing 
ought to be adjusted, it is unnecessary to recur to 
its utility as a means of regulating the temperature 
of the human body. If the use of suitable clothing 
is found insufficient to keep the body warm, we may 
infer with certainty, although no other sign of bad 
health Las appeared, that some internal cause exists, 
affecting and impairing one or other of the sources 
of animal heat already mentioned, and that till the 
special cause be discovered and removed, the evil 
itself will continue undiminished. 

In winter, young people often suffer from being 
daily confined for many hours in succession, with- 
out exercise, in rooms insufficiently heated. This 
is a constant subject of complaint in large acad- 
emies and boarding-schools, where economy in fuel 
is carried to its utmost limits. Nothing tends more 
than this to lower the general standard of health, 
and prepare the individual for the future inroads of 
insidious diseases. In scrofulous children espe- 
cially, in whom the evolution of heat is rarely ener- 
getic, the evil is one of great magnitude, for the 
chilblains, colds, and headaches more immediately 
complained of are often its least important conse- 
quences. It is far from my wish to recommend 
that the young of either sex should be brought up in 



AND ANIMAL HEAT. 195 

the relaxing atmosphere of overheated rooms. On 
the contrary, comfortable warmth ought, in every 
instance, to be drawn chiefly from its legitimate 
sources, free respiration in a pure air, abundant out- 
door exercise, vigorous digestion, and an actively 
employed mind. If these conditions be observed, 
little fire will be required to supply warmth to the 
young. But if, as often happens, these be neg- 
lected, and the generation of animal heat be thereby 
reduced too low, we must either allow the mischief 
to go on increasing, or afford adequate warmth from 
without. It is in vain to think of rendering young 
creatures hardy by subjecting them to the continued 
influence of a depressing temperature. A few may 
escape, but the majority will certainly suffer. 

In the heating of rooms and public halls, it is 
proper to be on our guard against rendering the air 
too dry, a condition which is hurtful in causing too 
rapid evaporation from the whole line of the air- 
passages, as well as from the surface of the body, 
and which is apt to produce considerable irritability 
in the general system. On the Continent, where 
stoves are much in use, a vessel containing water 
is commonly placed on a sand-bath on th^ top, that 
moisture may be generated quickly or slowly, ac- 
cording to the degree of heat, and diffused through 
the atmosphere. In such of our halls as are warmed 
by heated air or stoves, some such plan ought to be 
adopted. 

Having thus examined the chief conditions re- 
quired for healthy respiration, it only remains for 
us to throw out a few practical hints in regard to 
what may be called the education of the lungs, or 
the means by which their development may be 
favoured, and their functions improved in tone and 
extent. Most of these means have been already 
noticed at some length, and the only important one 
which still claims our attention is the exercise of the 
lungs. 



196 EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 

Judicious exercise of the lungs is one of the 
most efficacious means which we can employ for 
promoting their development and warding off theii 
diseases. In this respect the organs of respiration 
closely resemble the muscles and all other organ- 
ized parts. They are made to be used, and if they 
are left in habitual inactivity their strength and 
health are unavoidably impaired; while, if their ex- 
ercise be ill-timed or excessive, disease will as cer- 
tainly follow. 

The lungs may be exercised indirectly by such 
kinds of bodily or muscular exertion as require 
quicker and deeper breathing; and directly by the 
employment of the voice in speaking, reading aloud, 
crying, or singing. In general, both ought to be 
conjoined. But where the chief object is to im- 
prove the lungs, those kinds which have a tendency 
to expand the chest, and call the organs of respira- 
tion into play, ought to be especially preferred. 
Rowing a boat, fencing, quoits, shuttlecock, and the 
proper use of dumb-bells and gymnastics are of this 
description. All of them employ actively the mus- 
cles of the chest and trunk, and excite the lungs 
themselves to freer and fuller expansion. Climbing 
up hill is, for the same reason, an exercise of high 
utility in giving tone and freedom to the pulmonary 
functions. 

Where, either from hereditary predisposition or 
accidental causes, the chest is unusually weak, 
every effort should be made, from infancy upwards, 
to favour the growth and strength of the lungs by 
the habitual use of such of the above-mentioned ex- 
ercises as can most easily be practised. The ear- 
lier they are resorted to, and the more steadily they 
are pursued, the more certainly will their beneficial 
results be experienced. In their employment, the 
principles explained in the chapter on the muscles 
ought to be adhered to. 

Habitual exercise in a hilly country, and the fre- 



EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 197 

quent ascent of acclivities, especially in pursuit of 
an object, are well known to have a powerful effect 
in improving the wind and strengthening the lungs, 
which is just another way of saying that they in- 
crease the capacity of the chest, promote free cir- 
culation through the pulmonary vessels, and lead to 
the more complete oxygenation of the blood. 
Hence the vigorous appetite, the increased muscu- 
lar power, and cheerfulness of mind so commonly 
felt by the invalid on his removal to the mountains 
are not to be wondered at. I was myself sensible 
of advantage from this kind of exercise during a 
Highland excursion. The necessity of frequent 
and deep inspirations, and the stimulus thus given 
to the general and pulmonary circulation, had an 
obvious effect in increasing the capacity of the 
aings, and the power of bearing exertion without 
fatigue. Even when I was wearied, the fatigue 
went off much sooner than after a walk of equal 
length on a level road, and it was unattended with 
the languor which generally accompanied the latter. 
In fact, the most agreeable feeling which 1 expe- 
rienced during the whole time was on resting after 
undergoing, in ascending a hill, a degree of exer- 
tion sufficient to accelerate the breathing, and bring 
out a considerable degree of perspiration. A light- 
ness and activity of mind, and freedom about the 
chest which I never felt to the same extent at any 
other time, followed such excursions, and made the 
fatigue comparatively light. 

Before such practices, however, can be resorted 
to with advantage, or even with safety, there must 
be nothing in the shape of active disease existing. 
If there be, the adoption of such exercise will, in 
all probability, occasion the most serious injury. 
This also I experienced in my own case, as, for 
many months at an earlier stage of convalescence, 
going up a stair, ascending the most gentle acclivity, 
or speaking aloud for a few minutes, was equally 
R2 



198 EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 

fatiguing and hurtful, and often brought on cough, 
and occasionally a slight spitting of blood. At that 
time, riding on horseback, which exercises the 
body without hurrying the breathing, was especially 
useful. The advantage of these exercises in giving 
tone and capacity to the lungs, where debility rather 
than disease is complained of, is shown in their 
being regularly resorted to in preparing for the 
race-course and for the field. The true sportsman 
puts himself in training as well as his dog or his 
horse, and fits himself for the moors by regular ex- 
cursions previous to the 12th of August. By so 
doing he improves his wind and increases his mus- 
cular strength to a remarkable extent in a very short 
time. 

When no active pulmonary disease exists, these 
•exercises may, with the best effects, be frequently 
carried so far as to induce free perspiration ; only 
great care ought to be taken immediately after, to 
rub the surface of the body thoroughly dry, and to 
change the dress. It is quite ascertained, that with 
these precautions perspiration from exercise is the 
reverse of debilitating. It equalizes and gently 
stimulates the circulation, relieves the internal or- 
gans, improves digestion, and invigorates the skin. 
Jackson testifies strongly to these results when he 
declares that the severe exercise incurred in train- 
ing not only improves the lungs, but always renders 
the skin " quite clear, even though formerly subject to 
eruptions"* These assertions are, of course, to be 
received as the statements of a man partial to his 
own art ; but they are in accordance with experi- 
ence, and with the laws of the animal functions, so 
far as these are known. They therefore merit the 
consideration of professional men, and of those 
whose features are often disfigured by eruptions 

• Code of Health, 5th edition. Appendix, p. 37. 



EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 199 

which they find it difficult to remove by any kind of 
medicine. 

I need hardly say, that when wishing to favour 
the development of the lungs, we ought to be scru- 
pulous in avoiding such positions of the body as 
hinder their full expansion. Tailors, shoemakers, 
clerks at a writing-desk, and the like, are unfavour- 
ably situated in this respect, as their bent position 
constrains the chest, and impedes the breathing and 
circulation. 

Direct exercise of the lungs, in speaking, reciting, 
singing, and playing on wind instruments, is very 
influential for good or for evil, according as it is in- 
dulged in with or without due reference to the con- 
stitution of the individual. If it is, nothing tends 
more to expand and give tone and health to these 
important organs ; but if either ill-timed or carried 
to excess, nothing can be more detrimental. 

The crying and sobbing of children contribute 
much to their future health, unless they are caused 
by disease, and carried to a very unusual extent. 
The loud laugh and noisy exclamations attending 
the sports of the young have an evident relation to 
the same beneficial end ; and ought therefore to be 
encouraged instead of being repressed, as they are 
often sought to be, by those who, having forgotten 
that they themselves were once young, seek in 
childhood the gravity and decorum of more advanced 
age. I have already noticed, at page 109, an in- 
stance on a large scale, in which the inmates of an 
institution were, for the purpose of preserving their 
health, shut up within the limits of their hall for six 
months, and not allowed to indulge in any noisy and 
romping sports. The aim of the directors was un- 
doubtedly the purest benevolence, but from their 
want of knowledge, their object was defeated, 
and the arrangement itself became the instrument 
of evil. 

Beneficial as the direct exercise of the lungs is 



200 EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 

thus shown to be in strengthening the chest, its in* 
fluence extends still farther. If we examine the 
position of the lungs as represented in the figure on 
page 169, we shall see, that, when fully inflated, 
they must necessarily push downwards and flatten 
the moveable arch of the diaphragm D D, by which 
they are separated from the belly or abdomen. This 
alteration, however, cannot take place without the 
diaphragm in its turn pushing down the liver, 
stomach, and bowels, which it accordingly does, 
causing them to project forwards and outwards. 
But no sooner are the lungs full) 7 " inflated than the 
contained air is again thrown out. The lungs di- 
minish in size : the diaphragm rises, and with it all 
the contents of the abdomen return to their former 
position. The whole digestive apparatus is thus 
subjected to a continual pressure and change of 
place, and the stimulus thence arising is, in truth, 
essential to the healthy performance of the digestive 
functions, and is one of the means arranged by the 
Creator for the purpose. Consequently, if the lungs 
be rarely called into active exercise, not only do 
they suffer, but an important condition of digestion 
being withdrawn, the stomach and bowels also become 
weakened, and indigestion and costiveness make 
their appearance. I have already alluded to this 
subject in the chapter on muscular exercise ; but 
the principle will now be better understood with the 
aid of the figure. 

After this exposition, I need hardly say that the 
inid and distinct speaking enforced in many public 
schools is productive of much good to the young, 
and that in this respect the occasional songs in 
which all are required to join in the Infant Schools, 
and other institutions, are much to be commended. 
Let any one who doubts their efficacy as exercises 
of the lungs, attend to what passes in his own body 
on reading aloud a single paragraph, and he will 
find, not only that deep inspirations and full expira- 



EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 201 

tions are encouraged, but that a considerable im- 
pulse is communicated to the bowels, affording a 
marked contrast to the slight breathing and quies- 
cent posture of those whose voices never rise above 
a whisper. 

Reading aloud, public speaking, and lecturing are 
excellent exercises for developing the lungs and the 
chest. But, as they require some exertion, they 
ought to be indulged in with prudence, and with con- 
stant reference to the constitution and health of thei 
individual. When early resorted to, and steadily 
persevered in, they are useful in warding off disease 
and communicating strength to an important func- 
tion. But when begun suddenly, and carried to ex- 
cess by persons with weak lungs, they are more 
directly injurious than almost any other cause. It 
is not uncommon for young divines to give them- 
selves up to preaching, without any previous prepa- 
ration for the effort which it requires, and to expe- 
rience, in consequence, pains in the chest, spitting 
of blood, and other dangerous forms of disease, 
which often extinguish their brightest prospects in 
the morning of life. Sacrifices of this kind are the 
more to be lamented, because it is probable, that, 
by a well-planned system of gradual preparation, 
many who fall victims might find in their profession 
even a source of safety. 

The late illustrious Cuvier, as was mentioned at 
page 135, is considered to have been saved from an 
early death by his appointment to a professorship 
leading him to the moderate and regular exercise of 
his lungs in teaching, — a practice which soon re- 
moved the delicacy of chest to which he was sub- 
ject, and enabled him to pass uninjured through a 
long life of active usefulness. Other examples of 
the same kind might be mentioned. But it is im- 
portant to observe, that in all of them the exercise 
was, at all times, accurately proportioned to the ex- 
isting state of the lungs. Had active disease ex- 



£02 EXERCISE OF THE LUNGS. 

isted, or the exertion required been beyond what the 
lungs were fully able to bear, the effect would have 
been, not to improve health, but to destroy life ; and 
this condition of accurate relation between the 
amount of exercise and the state of the organization 
must never for a moment be overlooked. With a 
little care, however, the point at which direct exer- 
cise of the lungs ought to stop may easily be deter- 
mined by observing its effects. 

The same principle leads to another obvious rule . 
When disease of any kind exists in the chest, the 
exercise of the lungs in speaking, reading, and sing- 
ing, and also in ordinary muscular exertion, ought 
either to be entirely refrained from or strictly regu- 
lated by professional advice. When a joint is sore 
or inflamed, we know that motion impedes its re- 
covery. When the eye is affected, we, for a similar 
reason, shut out the light ; and when the stomach is 
disordered, we have respect to its condition, and 
become more careful about diet. The lungs demand 
a treatment founded on the same general principle. 
If they are inflamed, they must not be exercised, 
otherwise mischief will ensue. Hence, in a com- 
mon cold of any severity, silence, which is the ab- 
sence of direct pulmonary exercise, ought to be 
preserved, and will in truth be its own reward. In 
severe cases, and in acute inflammations of the 
chest, this rule is of the greatest importance. It is 
common to meet with patients who cannot speak 
three words without exciting a fit of coughing, and 
who, notwithstanding, cannot be persuaded that 
peaking retards their recovery. In like manner, 
in spitting of blood, and in the early stage of tuber- 
cular consumption, when the breathing cannot be 
excited without direct mischief, it is often difficult 
to convince the patient of the necessity of silence. 
He perhaps does not feel pain on attempting to 
speak, and says that " it merely raises a short tick- 
ling cough, which is nothing." But if he persists, 



PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN THE LUNGS. 203 

dearly-bought experience will teach him his error, 
and dispose him to regret, as did a lamented friend 
of the author, that a few weeks of the many years 
usually dedicated to the classics had not been de- 
voted to communicating to him some knowledge of 
the structure and functions of his own body. In 
the instance alluded to, after spitting of blood had 
been induced by severe bodily labour, the patient 
continued talking almost the whole day to the visit- 
ers and inmates of a large public establishment, 
and believed himself all the time to be very careful, 
as he said he was no longer exerting his body. 
When the error was pointed out, and the mechanism 
of the lungs explained to him, he deeply bewailed 
the ignorance which had allowed him to act in a 
manner so pernicious. 

All violent exercise ought, for similar reasons, to 
be refrained from, during at least the active stages 
of cold. Every thing which hurries the breathing, 
whether walking fast, ascending an acclivity, or 
reading aloud, has the same effect on the diseased 
lungs that motion of the bones has on an inflamed 
joint. It seems to me, that many people hurt them- 
selves much more by the active exercise they take 
during a severe cold than by the mere exposure to 
the weather. It is well known, that a person when 
colded may go out for a short time, even in an open 
carriage more safely than on foot, and there is much 
reason to believe, that it is the absence of active ex- 
ertion of the lungs in the former case which makes 
the exposure less hurtful. 

After al 1 active disease has been subdued, or when 
nothing bui delicacy remains, the adequate exercise 
of the lungs is one of the best means of promoting 
effectual recovery. Those parents, therefore, act 
most erroneously, who, in their apprehensive anx- 
iety for the protection of their delicate children, 
scrupulously prohibit them from every kind of exer- 
cise which requires the least effort, and shut them 



204 PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN THE LUNGS. 

up from the open air during winter, with the false 
hope of thereby warding off colds and protecting 
their lungs. I have seen the greatest delicacy of 
constitution thus engendered, especially where an 
undue quantity of warm clothing was at the same 
time employed. When tested by the principles 
above explained, such conduct is found to be as 
ill adapted as possible to the end in view, and ut- 
terly at variance with all the laws of the animal 
economy. 

Perhaps the most important time in the life of a 
person born with a predisposition to consumption is 
that of puberty, comprising from the commencement 
of rapid growth to the full consolidation of the sys- 
tem about or after the twenty-first year. In most 
young people, the transition from adolescence to 
maturity is so rapid, that for two or three years al] 
the animal pov/ers are tasked to enable nutrition to 
keep pace with growth, and a corresponding debility 
of both body and mind is often observed to co-exist, 
indicating, in the clearest manner, the necessity of 
a temporary remission from such studies and occu- 
pations as require much mental exertion or confine- 
ment within doors. The development and health 
of the physical system ought then to be almost ex- 
clusively attended to ; and when the bodr has ac- 
quired its solidity, the mental faculties will again 
become active. I have seen instances where a 
knowledge of the latter fact afforded substantial 
consolation to young men who, while their bodies 
were growing rapidly, w r ere apt to become despond- 
ent, on account of the unusual sluggishness and 
inefficiency of their intellectual powers. In the 
course of a few years, when the growth and con- 
solidation were completed, the brain vigorously re- 
sumed its functions. 

In such circumstances, relaxation from study, 
residence in the country, exercise in the open air, 
plenty of food, and no care, will often do immense 



PREVENTION OF DISEASE IN THE LUNGS. 205 

good, if sufficiently persisted in, and go far to pro- 
tect the careful patient against the future invasion 
of consumption. Whereas, if, under the mistaken 
notion that such precautionary measures are a waste 
of time, a delicate growing youth is allowed to con- 
tinue at his studies or his desk till disease has actu- 
ally commenced, the disappointed parent will often 
discover that it is too late to take alarm when health 
s gone. 

It is at the approach of manhood, when both 
mind and body are in a state of transition, that dis- 
sipation is most indulged in, and presses with its 
deadliest force. Many delicate youths of both 
sexes are carried off, who would have escaped with- 
out injury, if they could have been persuaded to act 
with prudence during these two or three critical 
years. Many, I am constrained to say, first learn 
the means of their destruction in boarding-schools 
and places of public resort, and that often when no 
mischief is suspected by their respectable teachers. 
On this topic, however, the non-professional char- 
acter of the present work precludes me from enter- 
ing into details. 

Before quitting this important subject, I may add 
another word of advice, in regard to those who are 
predisposed to consumption or weakness of chest. 
As soon as active growth commences, permanent 
benefit may be derived from removal, for a few 
years, to a milder and less variable climate. Many 
who are sent abroad only to die painfully in a foreign 
land, in the noonday of life, might have lived for 
years in the enjoyment of health and usefulness, 
had they been sent abroad before the appearance of 
disease, instead of after its unequivocal commence- 
ment. The previous delicacy, whence the suscep- 
tibility to colds and pulmonary affections arises, 
ought to attract the earliest attention, and excite 
the most persevering efforts for its removal. If it 
be allowed to make progress till consumption has 
S 



206 STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN. 

commenced, medicine may come armed with its 
most powerful remedies, and directed by the most 
consummate skill, but it will too often come in vain, 
for the patient will be no longer within its reach. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Nervous System — Structure of the Brain — Its Functions — 
Connexion between the Mind and Brain — Conditions of 
Health in the Brain— Hereditary Predisposition— Influence 
of the Blood on the Brain— Influence of Exercise on the 
Brain — Effects of insufficient Exercise — Effects of excessive 
Exercise at different Ages — Case of Sir H. Davy — Rules for 
the proper Exercise of the Brain — Best Time for Mental 
Exert ion — Regularity essential —Repetition — Every Mental 
Power to be exercised directly on its own Objects — Illustra- 
tions — Influence of the Nervous System on the general 
Health— Examples. 

In man and the higher order of animals, the ner- 
vous system is composed of, 1st, the brain; 2d, the 
spinal marrow ; and, 3d, the nerves. But, on the 
present occasion, it will be necessary to confine our 
remarks chiefly to the brain; and, even regarding 
it, to offer observations only on such points as all 
are agreed upon, and the general reader can easily 
comprehend. 

The brain is that large organized mass which, 
along with its enveloping membranes, completely 
fills the cavity of the scull. It is the seat of thought, 
of feeling, and of consciousness, and the centre to- 
wards which all impressions made on the nerves 
distributed through the body are conveyed, and from 
which the commands of the will are transmitted to 
put the various parts in motion. 

The structure of the brain is so complicated, that 
less is known of its true nature than of that of almost 



STRUCTURE Op T HE BRAIN. 207 

any other organ. It would therefore be entirely 
out of place to attempt to describe it here, further 
than by stating generally its principal divisions. 
On sawing off the top of the scull, and removing the 
firm tough membrane called dura w-'er (hard mo- 
ther), which adheres closely to its concave surface, 
the cerebrum, or brain proper, presents itself, marked 
on the surface with a great variety of undulating 
windings or convolutions, and extending from thi 
fore to the back part of the head, somewhat in tba 
form of an ellipse. In the middle line, a deep fissure 
is perceived, into w 7 hich dips a fold of the dura 
mater, named the falx, separating the brain, in its 
whole length, into two halves, or hemispheres, as 
they are called. Each hemisphere is, in its turn, 
divided, — but in a less marked way, as the d/visions 
are observable only on its inferior surface., — into 
three portions, called, from their situations, ihe an- 
terior, middle, and posterior lobes, each occupying 
nearly a third of the whole length of the brain. 
The anterior lobe occupies the forehead ; the xniddle 
is all the portion of brain lying above and a ill t tie in 
front of the ears ; and the posterior fills the back 
part of the head. 

Beneath the posterior lobe, a strong fold Oif the 
dura mater, called the tentorium, is extended hori- 
zontally to support and separate it from the o.T'.o°U 
lum, or little brain lying below it. The cerebeUum 
forms the last great division of the contents ol the 
scull. Its surface is marked by convolutions, dhYer- 
ng, however, in size and appearance from those ob- 
eerved in the brain. 

Adhering to the surface of the convolutions, and 
consequently dipping down into and lining the sulci 
or furrows between them, another membrane, of a 
finer texture, and great vascularity, called the pia 
mater, is found. The blood-vessels going to the brain 
branch out so extensively on the pia mater, that, 
arhen a little inflamed, it seems to constitute a pei 



208 FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. 

feet vascular net-work. This minute subdivision is 
of use in preventing the blood from being impelled 
with too great force against the delicate tissue of 
the brain. 

A third covering, called the arachnoid membrane, 
from its fineness resembling that of a spider's web, 
is interposed between the other two, and is frequently 
the seat of disease. 

On examining the convolutions in different brains 
they are found to vary a good deal in size, depth, 
and general appearance. In the various regions of 
the same brain they are also different, but preserve 
the same general aspect. Thus they are always 
small and numerous in the anterior lobe, larger and 
deeper in the middle, and still larger in the posterior 
lobe. 

The brain receives an unusually large supply of 
blood, in comparison with the rest of the body ; but 
the nature of its circulation, although a very interest- 
ing subject of study, being only indirectly con- 
nected with our present purpose, cannot now be dis- 
cussed. 

Most physiologists are agreed that the different 
parts of the brain perform distinct functions, and that 
these functions are the highest and most important 
in the animal economy ; but there is great discrep- 
ancy of opinion as to what the function of each part 
is, and as to the best mode of removing the obscu- 
rity in which the subject is involved. It would be 
useless to examine here the merits of the respective 
theories and modes of inquiry, as the attempt would 
lead us too far from the practical aim of the work. 
Suffice it to say, that all physiologists and philoso- 
phers regard the brain as the organ of mind ; that 
most of them consider it as an aggregate of parts, 
each charged with a specific function ; and that a 
large majority, with Gall and Cuvier at their head, 
regard the anterior lobe as more immediately the 



FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. 209 

seat of the intellectual faculties.*. Further, by nearly 
universal consent, the brain is held to be also the 
seat of the passions and moral feelings of our na- 
ture, as well as of consciousness and every other 
mental act, and to be the chief source of that ner- 
vous influence which is indispensable to the vitality 
and action of every orgaaof the body. There are 
so few exceptions to the general belief of these prop- 
ositions, that I consider myself fairly entitled to 
hold them as established. 

Many animals possess individual senses or instincts 
in greater perfection than man, but there is not one 
which can be compared with him in the number and 
range of its faculties ; and, as a necessary conse- 
quence, there is not one which approaches him in 
the development and perfection of its nervous sys- 
tem. No organ can execute more than a single 
function ; and, accordingly, even the Edinburgh Re- 
view admits, that, in precise proportion as we as- 
cend in the scale of creation, and the animal ac- 
quires a sense, a power, or an instinct, do its nerves 
multiply and " its brain improve in structure and 
augment in volume, each addition being marked by 
some addition or amplification of the powers of the ani- 
mal, until in man we behold it possessing some parts of 
which animals are destitute, and wanting none which 
they possess" so that " we are enabled to associate 
every faculty which gives superiority, with some addition 
to the nervous mass, even from the smallest indications 
of sensation and will, up to the highest degree of sensi- 
bility, judgment, and expression"^ • 

It is extremely important to bear in mind this con- 

* In speaking of the cerebral lobes being the place " where 
all the sensations take a distinct form and leave durable impres- 
sions," Cuvier adds, " L'anatomie compares en offre mie autre 
confirmation dans la proportion constant? dn. volume de ces lobes avec 
ledcgri d' 'intelligence des Animaux." — Vide Report to the institute 
011 Flourens's Experiments in 1822. 

t Edinburgh Review, No. xciv p. 442-3. 



210 FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN. 

stant relation between mental power and develop- 
ment of brain. It not only explains why capacities 
and dispositions are so different, but shows incon^ 
trovertibly that the cultivation of the moral and in- 
tellectual faculties can be successfully carried on 
only by acting in obedience to the laws of organiza- 
tion, and associating together those faculties, the 
organs of which are simultaneously progressive in 
their growth. It is a law, for instance, that alter- 
nate periods of activity and repose conduce to the 
strength and development of every organ, and to the 
easy performance of its function, and that excess in 
either is alike hurtful in its consequences. If, there- 
foie, in our anxiety for the advancement of a child 
in a favourite pursuit, we urge it to incessant and 
unvaried exertion of the same kind for many hours 
a day, we violate this law in neglecting the neces- 
sary intervals of rest, and thus run the risk of injur- 
ing the health of the brain, and entirely defeating 
our object. And, on the other hand, if we withdraw 
the child altogether from the pursuit, for weeks or 
months at a time, as happens during the vacation of 
a school, we violate the law again, in depriving the 
faculties of their necessary exercise, and thus run 
the risk of sacrificing the improvement already 
gained, and of diminishing the mental power. In 
neither case is the brain exercised in conformity 
with the organic laws, and consequently we look in 
vain for the same amount of improvement which 
would have followed their fulfilment ; and yet, so far 
\s the physiology of the brain from being considered, 
as the only sound basis on which the science of 
education can rest, that very few teachers or moral- 
ists are aware that the organic laws have any con- 
nexion with the operations of mind, and still fewer 
have ever thought of adapting their practice to the 
dictates of these laws ; although no truth in educa- 
tion or philosophy can be more clearly proved, or 



CONNEXION BETWEEN THE MIND AND BRAIN. 211 

more beneficially applied, than that on which I am 
now insisting. 

In thus treating of the brain as the indispensable 
instrument or organ of the mental faculties, I must 
not be understood as representing mind and brain to 
be one and the same thing. I mean only that the 
brain is necessarily engaged in every intellectual 
and moral operation, exactly as the eye is in every 
act of vision ; and that, as the mind cannot see with- 
out the intervention of the eye, so neither can it 
think or feel, during life, except through the instru- 
mentality of the brain. Consequently, it would be 
as reasonable and logical to infer, from the former 
proposition, that the eye is the mind, or the mind 
the eye, as to infer from the latter that the brain is 
the mind, or the mind the brain- 
It requires, however, to be distinctly understood, 
that activity of mind and activity of brain are in- 
separable, and that every change in the one is at- 
tended by a corresponding change in the condition 
of the other. If, by the excessive use of stimulants, 
the brain be highly excited, the mind will be dis- 
turbed in an equal degree, as is exemplified every 
day in the phenomena of intoxication ; and if, on the 
other hand, the mind be suddenly roused by violent 
passions, the vessels of the brain will instantly take 
on increased action, redness will suffuse the face, 
and excitement of the brain will show itself in char- 
acters as legible as if produced by a physical cause. 
The mind and brain being thus inseparably asso- 
ciated during life, it becomes an object of primary 
importance to discover the laws by which their 
healthy action is regulated, that we may yield them 
willing obedience, and escape the numerous evils 
consequent on their violation. To this inquiry the 
following pages shall be devoted. 

The brain being a part of the animal system, and 
subject to the same general laws as every other or- 
gan, the reader will not be surprised that I should, 



212 HEREDITARY PREDISPOSITION TO DISEASE. 

as in the case of the lungs, state a sound origina, 
constitution as the first condition of its healthy ac- 
tion. If the brain possess from birth a freedom 
from all hereditary taints and imperfections, and 
have acquired no unusual susceptibility from inju- 
dicious treatment in infancy, it will withstand a great 
deal in after-life before its health will give way. 
But if, on the other hand, either it inherit deficien- 
cies, or early mismanagement have subsequently 
entailed upon it an unusual proneness to morbid ac- 
tion, it will give way under circumstances which 
would otherwise have been perfectly innocuous ; 
and, accordingly, it may be truly said, that the most 
powerful of all the causes which predispose to nervous 
and mental disease is the transmission of a heredi- 
tary tendency from parents to children, producing in 
the latter an unusual liability to the same maladies 
under which the parents have laboured. 

Even where the defect in the parent is merely 
some peculiarity of disposition or temper, amount- 
ing perhaps to eccentricity, it is astonishing how 
clearly its influence on some one or other of the 
progeny may be traced, and how completely a con- 
stitutional bias of this description may interfere 
with a man's happiness or success in life. I have 
seen instances in which it pervaded every member 
of a family, and others in which it affected only one 
or two. When the original eccentricity is on the 
mother's side, and she is gifted with much force of 
character, the evil extends more widely among the 
children than when it is on the father's side. Where 
both parents are descended from tainted families, 
the progeny is of course more deeply affected than 
where one of them is from a pure stock ; and, seem- 
ingly for this reason, hereditary predisposition is a 
more usual cause of nervous disease in the higher 
classes, who intermarry much with each other, than 
in the- lower, who have a wider choice. 

Unhappily, it is not me-rsly as a cause of disease 



HEREDITARY PREDISPOSITION TO DISEASE. 213 

that hereditary predisposition is to be dreaded. The 
obstacles which it throws in the way of permanent 
recovery are even more formidable, and can never 
be entirely removed. Safety is to be found only in 
avoiding the perpetuation of the mischief; and, 
therefore, if two persons, each naturally of an ex- 
citable and delicate nervous temperament, choose 
to unite for life, they have themselves to blame for 
the concentrated influence of similar tendencies in 
destroying the health of their offspring, and subject- 
ing them to all the miseries of nervous disease, 
madness, or melancholy. 

Even where no hereditary defect exists, continued 
excitement of the nervous functions in the mother, 
from anxiety, grief, or other causes, during preg- 
nancy, has often a striking effect on the future men- 
tal health and constitution of the offspring. Many 
authors testify to the truth of this fact, which has 
not escaped the penetration of some mothers. The 
Margravine of Anspach observes justly, that " when 
a female is likely to become a mother, she ought t<? 
be doubly careful of her temper ; and, in particular, 
to indulge no ideas that are not cheerful, and no 
sentiments that are not kind. Such is the con- 
nexion between the mind and body, that the features 
of the face are moulded commonly into an expres- 
sion of the internal disposition; and is it not natural 
to think that an infant, before it is born, may be 
affected by the temper of its mother ]" — Memoirs, 
vol. ii. chap. viii. 

The second condition required for the health of 
the brain is a due supply of properly oxygenated 
blood. The effects of slight differences in the 
quality of the blood are not easily recognised, but 
when extreme they are too obvious to be over- 
looked. If the stimulus of arterial blood be alto- 
gether withdrawn, the brain ceases to act, and sensi- 
bility and consciousness become extinct. Thus, 
when fixed air is inhaled, the blood circulating 



214 INFLUENCE OF THE BLOOD ON THE BRAIN. 

through the lungs does not undergo that process of 
oxygenation which is essential to life ; and as it is 
in this state unfit to excite or support the action of 
the brain, the mental functions become impaired, 
and death speedily closes the scene. If, on the 
other hand, the blood be too highly oxygenated, as 
by breathing oxygen gas instead of common air, the 
brain is too much stimulated, and an intensity of ac- 
tion, bordering on inflammation, takes place, which 
also soon terminates in death. 

Such are the consequences of the two extremes ; 
but the slighter variations in the state of the blood 
have equally sure, although less palpable, effects. 
If its vitality be impaired by breathing an atmo- 
sphere so much vitiated as to be insufficient to pro- 
duce the proper degree of oxygenation, the blood 
then affords an imperfect stimulus to the brain ; and 
as a necessary consequence, languor and inactivity 
of the mental and nervous functions ensue, and a 
tendency to headache, syncope, or hysteria makes 
its appearance. This is seen every day in the list- 
lessness and apathy prevalent in crowded and ill- 
ventilated schools ; and in the headaches and liability 
to fainting which are so sure to attack persons of z 
delicate habit in the contaminated atmosphere of 
crowded theatres, churches, and assemblies. It is 
seen less strikingly, but more permanently, in the 
irritable and sensitive condition of the inmates of 
cotton-manufactories and public hospitals. In these 
instances, the operation of the principle cannot be 
disputed, for the languor and nervous debility con- 
sequent on confinement in ill-ventilated apartments, 
or in air vitiated by the breath of many people, are 
neither more nor less than minor degrees of the 
same process of poisoning to which I have formerly 
alluded. It is not real debility which produces 
them; for egress to the open air almost instantly 
restores activity and vigour to both mind and body, 
unless the exposure has been very long, in which 



INFLUENCE OF THE BLOOD ON THE BRAIN. 215 

case more time is required to re-establish the ex- 
hausted powers of the brain. A good deal of ob- 
servation has convinced me, that the transmission 
of imperfectly oxygenated blood to the brain is 
greatly more influential in the production of nervous 
disease and delicacy of constitution than is com- 
monly imagined ; and I am delighted to see the same 
truth so powerfully insisted on by Mr. Thackrah 
from extensive experience in the manufacturing dis- 
trict about Leeds. Having, however, dwelt on this 
subject in the preceding chapter, I need not repeat 
the observations already made.* 

Although, in delicate constitutions, the health of 
the brain and nervous system is often impaired by 
inadequate nutrition, and a sufficient supply of nour- 
ishing food is therefore indispensable to their well- 
being, yet, as this condition is implied in the pre- 
ceding, and its separate consideration would lead 
us too far from our main object, I shall not dwell 
upon it here. I shall merely state, that starvation 
often affects the brain so much as to produce fero- 
cious delirium, and that, in the Milanese, a species 
of insanity arising from defective nourishment is 
very prevalent, and is easily cured by the nourishing 
diet provided in the hospitals to which the patients 
are sent. I have seen the mental functions weak- 
ened, and the brain disordered, by the same cause — 
inadequate nutrition — at the period of rapid growth. 
This defective nutrition, however, it must be ob- 
served, does not always depend on want of proper 

* An intelligent teacher in Edinburgh, to whom I communi 
cated the above views, and who immediately set about acting 
on them by turning his pupils out to play, and throwing open the 
door and windows for ten minutes at the end of the first hour's 
confinement, assures me that the difference between the languor 
and little power of sustained attention exhibited under the old 
system, and the activity shown under the new, is very marked, 
and that the interval of relaxation is most profitably spent timfl 
both to his pupils and himself, as they return to work with 
maw life. 



216 INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE ON THE BRAIN 

food. On the contrary, it is often the result, among 
the higher classes, of too much or too stimulating 
food over-exciting and ultimately impairing the di- 
gestive powers. The proneness to morbid excite- 
ment in the brain, induced by insufficient food, is 
one cause why, in times of public distress, the 
lower orders are so apt to resort to violence to re- 
move the sources of their discontent. 

The third condition of health in the brain and 
nervous system, and that to which it is the chief 
object of these pages to direct attention, is the 
regular exercise of their respective functions, ac- 
cording to the laws already so frequently referred 
to, and so fully explained in one of the preceding 
chapters.* 

The brain, being an organized part, is subject, in so 
far as regards its exercise, to precisely the same laws 
as the other organs of the body. If it be doomed to 
inactivity, its functions languish, and its health de- 
cays. If it be duly exercised, after regular inter- 
vals of repose, its functions acquire readiness and 
strength ; and, lastly, if it be over-tasked, either in 
the force or duration of its activity, its functions 
become impaired, and irritability and disease take the 
place of health and vigour. 

The consequences of inadequate exercise may be 
first explained. 

We have seen that, t>y disuse, muscle becomes 
emaciated, bone softens, blood-vessels are obliter- 
ated, and nerves lose their characteristic structure. 
The brain is no exception to this general rule. Of 
it also the tone is impaired by permanent inactivity, 
and it becomes less fit to manifest the mental powers 
with readiness and energy. Nor will this surprise 
any reflecting person, who considers that the brain, 
as a part of the same animal system, is nourished 
by the same blood, and regulated by the same vital 
laws, as the muscles, bones, and nerves. 

* See Chapter IV., and also p. 150 



INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE ON THE BRAIN. 217 

It is the weakening and depressing effect upon the 
brain of the withdrawal of the stimulus necessary 
for its healthy exercise, which renders solitary con- 
finement so severe a punishment even to the most 
daring minds. It is a lower degree of the same 
cause which renders continuous seclusion from 
society so injurious to both mental and bodily health, 
and which often renders the situation of govern- 
esses one of misery and bad health, even where 
every kindness is meant to be shown towards them. 
In many families, especially in the higher ranks, 
the governess lives so secluded that she is as much 
out of society as if she were placed in solitary con- 
finement. She is too much above the domestics to 
make companions of them, and too much below her 
employers to be treated by them either with confi- 
dence or as an equal. With feelings as acute, in- 
terests as dear to her, and a judgment as sound as 
those of any of the persons who scarcely notice 
her existence, she is denied every opportunity of 
gratifying the first or expressing the last, merely 
because she " is only the governess ;" as if govern- 
esses were not made of the same flesh and blood, 
and sent into the world by the same Creator, as 
their more fortunate employers. It is, I believe, 
beyond question, that much unhappiness, and not 
unfrequently madness itself, are unintentionally 
caused by this cold and inconsiderate treatment. 
For the same reason, those who are cut off from 
social converse by any bodily infirmity often be- 
come discontented and morose in spite of every 
resolution to the contrary. The feelings and facul- 
ties of the mind, which had formerly full play in 
their intercourse with their fellow-creatures, have 
no longer scope for sufficient exercise, and the 
almost inevitable result is irritability and weakness 
in the corresponding parts of the brain. 

This fact is particularly observed among the 
deaf and blind, in whom, from their being cut off 
T 



218 INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE* 

from a full participation in the same sources of in- 
terest as their more favoured brethren, irritability, 
weakness of mind y and idiocy are known to be 
much more prevalent than among other classes 
of people. In the Dictionnaire de Medecine (vol. XX. 
p. 87), Andral gives a description of the deaf and 
dumb, every word of which bears a direct reference 
to the above principle ; and a nearly similar account 
has been lately given of the blind by an equally in- 
telligent observer. " The deaf and dumb," says 
Andral, " presents, in his intelligence, character, 
and the development of his passions, certain modifi- 
cations which depend on his state of isolation in 
the midst of society. He remains habitually in a 
state of half-childishness, is very credulous, but, 
like the savage, remains free from many of the 
prejudices acquired in society. In him the tender 
feelings are not deep ; he appears susceptible neither 
of strong attachment nor of lively gratitude ; pity 
moves him feebly ; he has little emulation, few en- 
joyments, and few desires. This is what is com- 
monly observed in the deaf and dumb, but the 
picture is far from being of universal application ; 
some, more happily endowed, are remarkable for 
the great development of their intellectual and 
moral nature, but others, on the contrary, remain 
immersed in complete idiocy." Andral adds, that 
we must not infer from this that the deaf and dumb 
are therefore constitutionally inferior in mind to 
other men. " Their powers are not developed, because 
they live isolated from society : place them^ by some 
means or other, in relation with their fellow-men, and 
they will become their equals" This is the cause 
of the rapid brightening up of both mind and fea- 
tures, which is so often observed in blind or deaf 
children, when transferred from home to public in- 
stitutions, and there taught the means of converse 
with their fellows. In these instructive instances, 
the whole change is from a state of inactivity 



INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 219 

of the mind and brain to that of their wholesome 
and regular exercise. 

Keeping the above principle in view, we shall not 
be surprised to find, that non-exercise of the brain 
and nervous system, or, in other words, inactivit} 
of intellect and of feeling, is a very frequent pre- 
disposing cause of every form of nervous disease. 
For demonstrative evidence of this position, we 
have only to look at the numerous victims to be 
found among females of the middle and higher ranks, 
who have no call to exertion in gaining the means 
of subsistence, and no objects of interest on which 
to exercise their mental faculties, and who conse- 
quently sink into a state of mental sloth and nervous 
weakness, which not only deprives them of much 
enjoyment, but lays them open to suffering, both 
of mind and body, from the slightest causes. 

If we look abroad upon society, we shall find in- 
numerable examples of mental and nervous debility 
from this cause. When $ person of some mental 
capacity is confined for a long time to an unvarying 
round of employment, which affords neither scope 
nor stimulus for one-half of his faculties, and from 
want of education or society has no external re- 
sources, his mental powers, for want of exercise 
to keep up due vitality in their cerebral organs, be- 
come blunted, and his perceptions slow and dull, 
and he feels any unusual subjects of thought as dis- 
agreeable and painful intrusions. The intellect and 
feelings, not being provided with interests external 
to themselves, must either become inactive and 
weak, or work upon themselves, and become dis- 
eased. In the former case, the mind becomes apa- 
thetic, and possesses no ground of sympathy with 
its fellow-creatures ; in the latter, it becomes un- 
duly sensitive, and shrinks within itself and its 
own limited circle, as its only protection against 
every trifling occurrence or mode of action which 
has not relation to itself. A desire to continue an 



220 INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 

unvaried round of life takes strong possession of 
the mind ; because to come forth into society re- 
quires an exertion of faculties which have been long 
dormant, and cannot be awakened without pain, 
and which are felt to be feeble when called into 
action. In such a state, home and its immediate 
interests become not only the centre which they 
ought to be, but also the boundary of life ; and the 
mind originally constituted to embrace a much 
wider sphere is thus shorn of its powers, and the 
tone of mental and bodily health is lowered, till a 
total inaptitude for the business of life and the ordi- 
nary intercourse of society comes on, and often in- 
creases till it becomes a positive malady. 

But let the situation of such persons be changed ; 
bring them, for instance, from the listlessness of re- 
tirement to the business and bustle of a town, — give 
them a variety of imperative employments, — and 
place them in society so as to supply to their cere- 
bral organs that extent of exercise which gives them 
health and vivacity of action, — and, in a few months, 
the change produced will be surprising. Health, 
animation, and acuteness will take the place of 
former insipidity and dulness. In such instances it 
would be absurd to suppose that it is the mind itself 
which becomes heavy and feeble, and again revives 
into energy by these changes in external circum- 
stances : the effects arise entirely from changes in 
the state of the brain ; and the mental manifesta- 
tions and the bodily health have been improved 
solely by the improvement of its condition. 

Examples of this kind are not rare among retired 
officers, annuitants, merchants, and other persons 
living on certain incomes, without fixed occupations 
to interest them ; and a curious enough instance oc- 
curred lately in a young military officer, who spent 
three years in Canada, commanding a small detach- 
ment, in a remote station, where he was completely 
separated from all society of his own rank. During 



INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 221 

all that period he spent his time in sauntering, shoot- 
ing, or fishing, without that excitement to his vari- 
ous faculties which is afforded by the society of 
equals. The consequence of this compulsory mental 
apathy, and the corresponding inactivity of brain, 
was, that on returning to England his nervous sys- 
tem had become so weak and irritable, that, although 
by nature fond of society, he feared to meet even 
with the nembers of his own family, and for many 
weeks would never venture to walk out to take 
necessary exercise, except in the dark. And it was 
only at the end of several months that the renewed 
stimulus of society and employment restored the 
tone of his nervous system so far as to allow him to 
regain his natural character of mind, and to return 
to his usual habits of life. In this predisposed state 
of the system, a very slight cause would obviously 
have sufficed to convert the depression into absolute 
derangement. 

But, as mentioned at first, the most frequent vic- 
tims of this kind of predisposition are females of the 
middle and higher ranks, especially those of a ner- 
vous constitution and good natural abilities ; but 
who, from ill-directed education, possess nothing 
more solid than mere accomplishments, and have no 
materials of thought or feeling, and no regular or 
imperative occupations, to excite interest or demand 
attention. Such persons have literally nothing on 
which to expend half the nervous energy which na- 
ture has bestowed on them for better purposes. 
They have nothing to excite and exercise the brain, 
— nothing to elicit activity; their own feelings and 
personal relations necessarily constitute the grand 
objects of their contemplations ; these are brooded 
over till the mental energies become impaired, false 
ideas of existence and of Providence spring up in 
the mind, the fancy is haunted by strange impres- 
sions, and every trifle which relates to self is exag- 
gerated into an ohject of immense importance. The 
T* 



222 INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 

brain, having almost no employment, becomes weak, 
and the mental manifestations are enfeebled in pro- 
portion ; so that a person of good endowments, thus 
treated, will often not only exhibit somewhat of the 
imbecility of a fool, but gradually become irritable, 
peevish, and discontented, and open to the attack of 
every form of nervous disease and of derangement 
from causes which, under different circumstances, 
would never have disturbed her for a moment. 

That the liability of such persons to melancholy, 
hysteria, hypochondriasis, and other varieties of 
mental disease, really depends on a state of irrita- 
bility of brain, induced by imperfect exercise, is 
proved by the vast and rapid improvement we often 
witness from the sudden supervention of occur- 
rences which excite and employ the mental powers 
and their cerebral organs. Nothing is more usual 
than to see a nervous young lady, who for years had 
been unfit for any thing, while ease and indolence 
were her portion, deriving the utmost advantage 
from apparent misfortunes, which throw her upon 
her own resources, and force her to exert her ut- 
most energies to maintain a respectable station in 
society. Where, as in such circumstances, the 
mental faculties and brain, the intellect and moral 
and social feelings, are blessed with a stimulus to 
act, — the weakness, the tremors, and the apprehen- 
sions, which formerly seemed an inborn part of her- 
self, disappear as if by enchantment, and strength, 
vigour, and happiness take their place ; solely be- 
- cause now God's law is fulfilled, and the brain with 
' which He has connected the mind is supplied with 
that healthful stimulus and exercise which He or- 
dained to be indispensable to its healthy existence. 
An additional illustration, and I venture upon it 
because the principle is an important one in the pro- 
duction of many distressing forms of disease, will be 
found in the case of a man of mature age and ol 
active habits, who has devoted his life to the toils 



INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 223 

of business, and whose hours of enjoyment have 
been few and short. Suppose such a person to re- 
tire to the country in search of repose, and to have 
no deep moral, religious, or philosophical pursuits to 
occupy his attention, and keep up the active exer- 
cise of his brain, — the latter will lose its health, and 
the invariable result will be ennui, weariness of life, 
despondency, or some other variety of nervous dis- 
ease.* 

One great evil attending the absence of some im- 
perative employment or object of interest to exer- 
cise the mind and brain, is the tendency which it 
generates to waste the mental energies on every 
trifling occurrence which presents itself, and to seek 
relief in the momentary excitement of any sensa- 
tion, however unworthy. Not only does painful 
instability of purpose and interest arise from this 
cause, especially among females, but, by degrees, 
enjoyment is sought for more from the indulgence 
of the sensual appetites of eating and drinking than 
from any higher occupation; till, at last, the habit 
is established, and quantities of food and wine are 
daily swallowed, which add disease to indolence, 
and oppress both mind and body. Patients labour- 
ing under this form of indisposition complain much 
of debility, and of the exhaustion left by every exer- 
tion. It is common to hear them defending the ex- 
cesses which they commit, by affirming that with 
less support they would die of weakness ; but the 
plea, though plausible, is not less groundless than 
injurious. No doubt, they may feel stronger after 
a good dinner and a few glasses of wine, but the 
strength is that of feverish excitement, and the sub- 
sequent languor is proportionally great. Ere long, 

* It may be proper to state, that several of the preceding pages 
have been taken, with little alteration, from my " Observatio?is 
on Mental Derangement" published some time ago. But as that 
work is designed for the profession, and not for the general 
reader, I have thought it necessary to repeat them here. 



224 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 

too, the power of mental application gives way; the 
digestive organs fail under the task imposed upon 
them; and headache, flushing, sickness, and hilious 
attacks ensue in such rapid succession, that life at 
last becomes a state of habitual indisposition. 

The best remedy for these evils is to create occu- 
pation to interest the mind, and give that wholesome 
exercise to the brain which its constitution requires. 
Unless this can be done, the services of the phy- 
sician will be available only so long as their novelty 
continues a source of excitement ; and then, in all 
probability, he will be discharged to make way for 
another, who will, in his turn, be dismissed to give 
place to a third. The principle on which this is 
done is perfectly sound, and, in such cases, no sen- 
sible physician will take it amiss that his assistance 
is declined. The error lies in the patient seeking 
the necessary mental stimulus in a change of at- 
tendant, instead of in a change of occupation. But 
there cannot be a doubt, that where the patient is 
either unable or unwilling to seek recovery from 
engaging in proper employment, the mere change 
of physician is often of temporary service. 

The evils arising from excessive or ill-timed exer- 
cise of the brain or any of its parts, are numerous 
and equally in accordance with the ordinary laws 
of physiology. When we use the eye too long, or 
in too bright a light, it becomes bloodshot, and the 
increased action of its vessels and nerves gives rise 
to a sensation of fatigue and pain requiring us to 
desist. If we turn away the eye, the irritation 
gradually subsides, and the healthy state returns ; 
but if we continue to look intently, or resume our 
employment before the eye has regained its natural 
state by repose, the irritation at last becomes perma- 
nent, and disease, followed by weakness of sight or 
even blindness, mav ensue ; as often happens to 



EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN, 225 

glass-blowers, smiths, and others, who are obliged 
to work in an intense light. 

Precisely analogous phenomena occur when, from 
intense mental excitement, the brain is kept long in 
a state of excessive activity. The only difference 
is, that we can always see what happens in the eye, 
but rarely what takes place in the brain. Occasion- 
ally, however, cases of fracture of the scull occur, 
in which, from part of the bone being removed, we 
can see the quickened circulation in the vessels of 
the brain as easily as in those of the eye. Sir Ast- 
ley Cooper had a young gentleman brought to him 
who had lost a portion of his scull just above the 
eyebrow. " On examining the head," says Sir Ast- 
ley, " I distinctly saw the pulsation of the brain was 
regular and slow ; but at this time he was agitated 
by some opposition to his wishes, and directly the 
blood was sent with increased force to the brain, the pul- 
sation became frequent and violent; if therefore" con- 
tinues Sir Astley, "you omit to keep the mind free 
from agitation, your other means will be unavailing" in 
the treatment of injuries of the brain.* We are con- 
scious, indeed, of a flow of blood to the head when 
we think intently, or are roused by passion ; and the 
distension of the small vessels of the brain is not the 
less real or influential on account of its being hidden 
from our view. Too often it reveals itself by its 
effects when least expected, and leaves traces after 
death which are but too legible. How many public 
men, like Whitbread, Romilly, Castlereagh, and 
Canning, urged on by ambition or natural eagerness 
of mind, have been suddenly arrested in their career 
by the inordinate action of the brain induced by in- 
cessant toil ! And how many more have had their 
mental power for ever impaired by similar excess ! 
When tasked beyond its strength, the eye becomes 

* See Sir A. Cooper's Lecture on Surgery, by Tyrrel, voL i 
p. 279. 



226 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 

insensible to light, and no longer conveys any im- 
pressions to the mind. In like manner, the brain, 
when much exhausted, becomes incapable of thought, 
and consciousness is almost lost in a feeling of utter 
confusion. 

At any time of life, excessive and continued 
mental exertion is hurtful ; but in infancy and early 
youth, when the structure of the brain is still imma- 
ture and delicate, permanent mischief is more easily 
inflicted by injudicious treatment than at any subse- 
quent period ; and, in this respect, the analogy is 
complete between the brain and the other parts of 
the body, as we have already seen exemplified in 
the injurious effects of premature exercise of the 
bones and muscles. Scrofulous and rickety children 
are the most usual sufferers in this way. They are 
generally remarkable for large heads, great precocity 
of understanding, and small delicate bodies. But, 
in such instances, the great size of the brain and the 
acuteness of mind are the results of morbid growth ; 
and, even with the best management, the child passes 
the first years of its life constantly on the brink of 
active disease. Instead, however, of trying to re- 
press its activity, the fond parents, misled by the 
early promise of genius, too often excite it still 
farther, by unceasing cultivation and the never-fail- 
ing stimulus of praise and emulation ; and, finding its 
progress for a time equal to their warmest wishes, 
they look forward with ecstasy to the day when its 
talents will break forth, and shed a lustre on its 
name. But, in exact proportion as the picture be- 
comes brighter to their fancy, the probability of its 
being realized becomes less ; as the brain, worn out 
by premature exertion, either becomes diseased or 
loses its tone, leaving the mental powers slow and 
depressed for the remainder of life. The expected 
prodigy is thus ultimately and easily outstripped iu 
the social race by many whose apparently dull out* 
$et promised him an easy victory, 



EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 227 

Taking for our guide the necessities of the consti • 
tution, it will be obvious that the modes of treatment 
commonly resorted to ought to be reversed, anc* 
that, instead of straining to the uttermost the already 
irritable powers of the precocious child, and leaving 
his dull competitor to ripen at leisure, a systematic 
attempt ought to be made, from early infancy, to 
rouse to action the languid faculties of the latter; 
while no pains ought to be spared to moderate and 
give tone to the activity of the former. Instead of 
this, however, the prematurely intelligent child is 
generally sent to school, and tasked with lessons at 
an unusually early age ; while the healthy but more 
backward boy, who requires to be stimulated, is 
kept at home in idleness, perhaps for two or three 
years longer, merely on account of his backward- 
ness. A double error is here committed, and the 
consequence to the clever boy is frequently the per- 
manent loss both of health and of his envied supe- 
riority of intellect. 

In youth, too, much mischief is done by the long 
school-hours, and continued application of mind, 
which the present system of education requires. 
The law of exercise, that long-sustained action ex- 
hausts the vital powers of an organ, applies equally 
to the brain as to the muscles ; and hence the neces- 
sity of varying the occupations of the young, and 
allowing frequent intervals of active exercise in the 
open air, instead of enforcing the continued confine- 
ment now so common. This exclusive attention to 
mental culture fails, as might be expected, even in 
its essential object ; for experience shows that, with 
a rational distribution of employment and exercise, 
a child will make greater progress than in double 
the time employed in continuous mental exertion. 
If the human being were made up of nothing but a 
brain and nervous system, it would be very well to 
content ourselves with sedentary pursuits, and to 
confine education entirely to the mind. But when 



228 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 

observation tells us that we have numerous other 
important organs of motions, sanguification, diges- 
tion, circulation, and nutrition, all demanding exer- 
cise and the open air as essential both to their own 
health and to that of the nervous system, it is worse 
than folly to shut our eyes to the fact, and to act as 
if we could, by denying it, alter the constitution of 
nature, and thereby escape the consequences of our 
misconduct. 

Reason and experience being thus set at naught 
both by parents and teachers, in the management 
of the young, the latter naturally grow up with the 
notion that no such influences as the laws of organi- 
zation exist, and that they may follow any course 
of life which inclination leads them to prefer, with- 
out injury to health, provided they avoid what is 
called dissipation. It is owing to this ignorance, 
that we find young men of a studious or literary 
habit enter heedlessly upon an amount of mental 
exertion, unalleviated by bodily exercise or intervals 
of repose, which is quite incompatible with the con- 
tinued enjoyment of a sound mind in a sound body. 
Such, however, is the effect of the total neglect of 
all instruction in the laws of the organization during 
early education, that it becomes almost impossible 
to warn an ardent student against the dangers to 
which he is exposing himself, and nothing but actual 
experience will convince him of the truth. 

In the first number of the " American Annals of 
Education," the reader will find an instructive article 
on the necessity of combining bodily with mental 
exercise. " For twenty years and more," says the 
writer, "the unnatural union of sedentary with 
studious habits, contracted by the monastic system, 
has been killing in the middle age. The Register 
of Education shows, in one year, 120 deaths. Ex- 
amine into the particular cases, and these will be found 
the undoubted effects of sedentary habits. Look at 
one name there. He had valuable gifts, perfected 



EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 229 

by two years' academic, four years' collegiate, and 
three years' theological studies. He preached, gave 
much promise, and then died of a stomach disease. He 
contracted it when a student. He did not alternate 
bodily with mental labour, or he had lived and been 
a blessing to the church. When he entered on his 
studies, he was growing into full size and strength. 
He sat down till his muscles dwindled, his digestion 
became disordered, his chest contracted, his lungs con 
gested, and his head liable to periodical pains. He sat 
four years in college, and three years in theological 
application. Look at him now. He has gained much 
useful knowledge, and has improved his talents ; he 
has lost his health. The duties of his mind and 
heart were done, and faithfully so ; but those of his 
body were left undone. Three hundred and seventy- 
five muscles, organs of motion, have been robbed of their 
appropriate action for nine or ten years, and now they have 
become, alike with the rest of his frame, the prey of near 
one hundred and fifty diseased and irritable nerves." 
- — " Look at another case. Exposure incident to the 

E arson or missionary has developed the disease in 
is chest, planted there while fitting himself for 
usefulness. He contracted a sedentary, while he 
was gaining a studious habit. That which he sows, 
that also shall he reap. The east winds give him 
colds ; a pulpit effort causes hoarseness and cough, 
oppression and pain. He becomes alarmed and 
nervous. His views of usefulness begin to be 
limited. He must now go by direction, and not so much 
to labour where otherwise he would have been most 
wanted, as to nurse his broken constitution. He soon 
adds to the number of mysterious providences, to the 
number of innocent victims, rather, of cultivating 
the mind and heart, at the unnecessary and sinful 
expense of the body, — to the number of loud calls 
to alternate mental and corporeal action daily, for 
the reciprocal sanity and vigour of both mind and 
My." 

U 



230 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 

To remedy these evils, and introduce a bette? 
system of training, so as to make bodily health and 
mental and rational cultivation go hand in hand, an 
establishment called the Manual Labour Academy 
was opened near Philadelphia in 1829, and has 
already proved the soundness of its principles by 
the success of its results. The usual branches of 
study in classical schools, with the addition of the 
Bible, are pursued; and "the hours of recreation 
are employed in useful bodily labour, such as will 
exercise their skill, make them dexterous, establish 
their health and strength, enable each to defray his 
own expenses, and fit him for the vicissitudes 
of life." From this systematic union of bodily 
labour in gardening, farming, carpentry, and other 
work, with the usual academic studies, many 
comforts are said to have arisen. The health of 
the inmates has been uninterrupted, except in a 
few who were ill when received ; and, at the 
date of the report, in 1830, " every invalid remaining 
there had been restored to health" Young men thus 
trained to practical obedience to the organic laws 
are much less likely to run into excess in after-life, 
than those who have been left in ignorance of the 
constitution of their ownbodies. " When thought shall 
need no brain" the report continues, "and nearly 
four hundred organs of motion shall cease to constitute 
the principal portion of the human body, then may the 
student dispense with muscular exertion ;" but, till then, 
let him beware what he does, and look to the laws 
which the Creator has established for his guidance, 
and seek his happiness, not in denying their exist- 
ence, but in yielding them willing and cheerful obe- 
dience. 

In early and middle life, fever, with an unusual 
degree of cerebral disorder, is a common conse- 
quence of the excessive and continued excitement 
of the brain, which is brought on by severe study, 
unremitting mental exertion, anxiety, and watching. 



EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 231 

Some very marked cases of this kind have come 
under my observation, but that of Sir Humphry 
Davy is so strikingly illustrative of the dangers al- 
luded to, that I cannot do better than lay it before 
the reader. In November, 1807, Sir Humphry Davy 
was seized with very severe fever, in consequence 
of the excitement and fatigue which he underwent 
when engaged in his splendid discovery of the alka- 
line metals. " The laboratory of the institution was 
crowded with persons of every rank and description ; 
and Davy, as may be readily supposed, was kept in 
a continued state of excitement throughout the day. 
This circumstance, co-operating with the effects of 
the fatigue he had previously unde- rone, produced 
a most severe fit of illness, which, for a time, caused 
an awful pause in his researches, broke the thread 
of his pursuits, and turned his reflections into dif- 
ferent channels." Davy ascribed his illness to con- 
tagion caught in experimenting on the fumigation 
of hospitals. " Upon conversing, however, with Dr. 
Babington, who, with Dr. Frank, attended Davy 
throughout this illness, he assured me that there 
was not the slightest ground for this opinion, and 
that the fever was evidently the effect of fatigue and 
an over-excited brain. The reader will not feci much 
hesitation in believing this statement, when he is 
made acquainted with the habits of Davy at this 
period. His intellectual exertions were of the most in- 
jurious kind, and yet, unlike the philosophers of old, 
he sought not to fortify himself by habits of tem- 
perance." " Such was his great celebrity at this 
period of his career, that persons of the highest rank 
contended for the honour of his company at dinner, 
and he did not possess sufficient resolution to resist 
the gratification thus afforded, although it generally 
happened that his pursuits in the laboratory were no* 
suspended until the appointed dinner hour had passed 
On his return in the evening, he resumed his chymiccu 
hbmrs and commonly continued them till three or fovi 



232 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAiV. 

o'clock in the morning, and yet the servants of the estab- 
lishment not unfrequently found that he had risen before 
them?'' Such was the alarming state of Davy, that 
for many weeks his physicians regularly visited him 
four times in the day ; and the housekeeper, Mrs. 
Greenwood, never retired to bed, except one night, 
during eleven weeks. In the latter part of his illness, 
' he was reduced to the extreme of weakness, and 
is mind participated in the debility of his body."* 

Instances occasionally occur of persons exhausted 
by anxiety and long attendance on others, being 
themselves attacked by fever, and dying, more from 
the unfavourable state to which previous exhaustion 
had reduced them, than from the intensity of the 
fever itself. 

Nervous disease from excessive mental labour and 
exaltation of feeling sometimes shows itself in an- 
other form. From neglecting proper intervals of 
rest, the vascular excitement of the brain, which 
always accompanies activity of mind, has never time 
to subside, and a restless irritability of temper and 
disposition comes on, attended with sleeplessness 
and anxiety, for which no external cause can be 
assigned. The symptoms gradually become aggra- 
vated, the digestive functions give way, nutrition is 
impaired, and a sense of wretchedness is constantly 
present, which often leads to attempts at suicide. 
While all this is going on, however, the patient will 
talk or transact business with perfect propriety and 
accuracy, and no stranger could tell that any thing 
ails him. But in his intercourse with his intimate 
friends or physician, the havoc made upon the mind 
becomes apparent ; and, if not speedily arrested, it 
soon terminates, according to the constitution and 
circumstances of the individual case, in derange- 
ment, palsy, apoplexy, fever, suicide, or permanent 
weakness. 

* Paris's Life of Sir H. Davy, p. 183. 



EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 233 

As age advances, moderation in mental exertion 
becomes still more necessary than in early or ma- 
ture years. Scipion Pinel, in adverting to the evil 
consequences of excessive moral or intellectual ex- 
citement, acutely remarks, that while in youth and 
manhood the wear of the brain thus induced may be 
repaired, no such salutary result follows over-exer- 
tion in the decline of life : " what is lost then is lost 
for ever. At that period we must learn to wait for 
what the brain is willing to give, and allow it to 
work at its own time ; to attempt to force it is to 
weaken it to no purpose ; it becomes excited and 
quickly exhausted when forced to vigorous think- 
ing." — " Men of exalted intellect perish by their 
brains, and such is the noble end of those whose 
genius procures for them that immortality which so 
many ardently desire."* 

Who can peruse these lines without the fate of 
Scott instantly occurring to his mind, as a practical 
illustration of their truth 1 In the vigour of man- 
hood few ever wrote so much, or with greater ease. 
But when, on the verge of old age, adversity forced 
him to unparalleled exertion, the organic waste 
could no longer be repaired, and perseverance only 
"weakened the brain to no purpose," till morbid 
irritability became the substitute of healthy power, 
and he perished by that brain which had served him 
so faithfully and so efficiently, but which could no 
longer withstand the gigantic efforts which he con- 
tinued to demand from it. 

Where a predisposition to insanity exists, the 
cerebral excitement induced by excessive activity 
of mind often leads to disease. Examples of this 
kind abound in the works of authors. Pinel men- 
tions several. One of them was the case of a young 
man, distinguished for his talents and his profound 
knowledge of chymistry, who was occupied with a 

• Physiologic de l'Homme Alien^, p. 177* 
U 2 



234 EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 

discovery which he hoped would lead him to for- 
tune and distinction. To effect it the sooner, he 
resolved to shut himself up in his laboratory for 
several successive days ; and, the better to banish 
sleep and to raise himself to the level of his la- 
bours, he prepared a variety of stimulants. A sing- 
ing girl shared his retreat ; he drank spirits, smelled 
frequently odoriferous substances, and sprinkled the 
room with eau de Cologne. The combined action 
of all these means, added to the heat of his furnace, 
caused such a degree of cerebral excitement that, 
at the end of eight days, the most furious delirium 
took place, followed by a regular attack of mania 
If any thing can demonstrate the mutual influence 
of mind and brain, it is surely a case "like this, — a 
case which it is impossible to read without perceiv- 
ing how easily the cerebral affection might have 
been of the violent inflammatory character, which 
terminates, in a few days, in life or in death; or 
of the febrile character, that lasts for one or two 
months, and leaves the mind for ever reduced in 
tone and vigour. 

It is well remarked by Tissot, that the disorders 
produced by the efforts of the mind fall soonest 
upon such as are incessantly engaged in the contem 
plation of the same object. In this case, he adds, 
there is only one part of the sensorium (brain) acted 
upon, and that is kept always on the stretch ; it is not 
relieved by the action of the other parts, and therefore 
is sooner fatigued and injured ; the same rule holding 
with the brain as with the muscles, that the exer- 
cise which, if divided among the different parts of 
which it is composed, will strengthen them, will, il 
confined to a few, exhaust and impair them. Boer- 
haave himself, after a long period of intense think- 
ing, suffered for six weeks from excitement of the 
brain, bordering on madness, and characterized by 
that want of sleep, irritability, and indifference to 



EXCESSIVE EXERCISE OF THE BRAIN. 235 

ordinary interests, which ^o often appear as the 
harbingers of insanity. 

The number of literary and public men, students, 
and persons in business, who do themselves irrepa- 
rable injury in this way, is so great, that few of my 
readers who have had experience of the world will 
be at a loss for examples even among their own ac- 
quaintances. In addition to Davy, Scott, and others, 
already mentioned, Sir Isaac Newton may be re- 
ferred to ; as it is now certain that his mind was for 
a time disordered by excessive application, and 
there is much reason to believe that he never alto- 
gether recovered the shock. The premature ex- 
tinction of early " prodigies" of genius is also gene- 
rally traceable to the operation of the same cause. 
The wonder excited by their performances stimu- 
lates them to incessant and severe exertion, unre- 
lieved either by adequate repose or by variety of 
pursuit ; and the exhausted brain either sinks at the 
period of growth, or becomes so much weakened 
as to be unfit for the same splendour of manifesta- 
tions. The more limited the sphere of talent, the 
greater the danger of its being over- exercised ; and 
hence the frequency of nervous affections in musi- 
cians, and others who dedicate their lives to the 
exclusive cultivation of their arts. It is said that 
Gretry not only ruined his own health, but lost 
three highly-gifted and beautiful daughters in suc- 
cession, from over-excitement of the nervous sys- 
tem thus induced ; and there can be no doubt that 
the melancholy fate of Weber was greatly hastened 
by intense application. He continued deeply en- 
gaged in musical composition long after his health 
was undermined; and, even when the hand of death 
was almost upon him, his avocations pressed so 
heavily that he could not help exclaiming, "Would 
that I were a tailor, for then I should have a Sunday's 
holyday /" The philanthropic physician will rather 
oe inclined to exclaim, " Would that mankind would 



236 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

study their bodily structure and functions, and thus 
learn to preserve longer the health and existence ot 
those whose genius is the source of so many plea 
sures to the world at large !" 

Having thus pointed out the evils arising both from 
inadequate and from excessive mental exertion, it 
remains for me to direct attention to some of the 
conditions required for the proper exercise of the 
brain. 

It seems to be a law of the animal economy, that 
two classes of functions cannot be called into vigo- 
rous action at the same time, without one or other, 
or both, sooner or later sustaining injury. Hence 
the important rule, never to enter upon continued 
mental exertion, or to rouse deep feeling, imme- 
diately after a full meal, as the activity of the brain 
is sure to interfere with that of the stomach, and 
disorder its functions. Even in a perfectly healthy 
person, unwelcome news, sudden anxiety, or men- 
tal excitement, occurring after eating, will put an 
entire stop to digestion, and cause the stomach to 
loathe at the sight of food. In accordance w r ith 
this, we learn by experience, that the worst forms 
of indigestion and nervous depression are those 
which arise from excessive application of mind, or 
turmoil of feeling, conjoined with unrestrained in- 
dulgence in the pleasures of the table. In such cir- 
cumstances, the stomach and brain react upon and 
disturb each other, till all the horrors of nervous 
disease make their unwelcome appearance, and ren- 
der life miserable. Literary men and hard students 
know this fact from sad experience ; but as they are 
not aware of the incompatibility of the two processes 
of active thinking and active digestion going on at 
the same time, it is extremely difficult to give them 
a sense of their danger, and to convince them that 
an hour, or an hour and a half, after a meal is more 
profitably spent in easy relaxation than in the 



OF THE BRAIN AND MIND. 237 

abour of composition. As regards the lower ani- 
mals, indeed, we are careful enough to observe this 
organic law ; for we do not allow our horses or 
dogs to be actively exercised till digestion is in some 
degree completed. 

It may be said that mechanics, labourers, and 
others hurry away to work immediately after meals, 
and that, in the United States, the practice of hastily 
swallowing dinner and instantly returning to busi- 
ness is proverbially common. My answer to this 
objection is simply, that experience proves the fact, 
that digestion goes on better when exertion is re- 
frained from and repose is enjoyed, and that the 
tendency to sleep and inactivity which besets most 
animals after a full meal shows repose to be, in such 
circumstances, the intention of nature. It must be 
observed also, that the bad effects of immediate ex- 
ertion are not of that description which ensue in- 
stantly, or are felt from day to day. These may 
show themselves only at the end of months or 
years, when the influence has, as it were, accumu- 
lated by repetition. Although, therefore, the sys- 
tem possesses a certain power of resistance, and 
many persons seem to escape even for years, it 
cannot be doubted that opposition to the law of na- 
ture will eventually prove injurious. The extreme 
prevalence of dyspeptic complaints and of insanity 
among the Americans is, in all probability, partly 
owing to the very practice which is supposed by 
some to be harmless to them. 

The time best adapted for mental exertion falls 
next to be considered. Nature has allotted the 
darkness of night for repose, and the restoration by 
sleep of the exhausted energies of mind and body. 
If study or composition be ardently engaged in to- 
wards that period of the day, the increased action 
in the brain which always accompanies activity of 
mind requires a long time to subside ; and, if the 
individual be at all of an irritable habit of body, he 



238 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

will be sleepless for hours after going to bed, oi 
perhaps be tormented by unpleasant dreams. If, 
notwithstanding, the practice be continued, the 
want of refreshing repose will ultimately induce a 
state of morbid irritability of the nervous system, 
not far distant from insanity. It is therefore of 
great advantage to engage in severer studies early 
i in the day, and devote the two or three hours which 
precede bedtime to lighten reading, music, or amus- 
ing conversation. The vascular excitement pre- 
viously induced in the head by study has then time 
to subside, and sound refreshing sleep is much more 
certainly obtained. This rule is of great conse- 
quence to those who are obliged to undergo much 
mental labour. 

There are, no doubt, individuals so happily consti- 
tuted, and whose natural sphere is so essentially 
that of activity, that they are able to think and work, 
early and late, for years in succession, with very 
little sieep, ana with little regard to diet and regi- 
men ; but they are so obviously exceptions to the 
general rule, that we cannot for a moment hold them 
up as models for imitation; and even they would 
enjoy their astonishing gifts with greater security, 
were they to conform more completely with the 
laws of their organization. 

Periodicity, or the tendency to resume the same 
mode of action at stated times, is peculiarly the 
characteristic of the nervous system ; and, on this 
account, regularity is of great consequence in exer 
cising the moral and intellectual powers. All ner- 
vous diseases have a marked tendency to observe 
regular periods, and the natural inclination to sleep 
at the approach of night is but another instance of 
the same fact. It is this principle of our nature 
Mich promotes the formation of what are called 
tabits. If we repeat any kind of mental effort every 
Say at the same hour, we at last find ourselves enter- 
ing upon it, without premeditation, when the time 



OF THE BRAIN AND MIND. 239 

approaches ; and, in like manner, if we arrange our 
studies in accordance with this law, and take up 
each regularly in the same order, a natural aptitude 
is soon produced, which renders application more 
easy than by taking up the subjects as accident may 
direct. Nay, the tendency to periodical and asso- 
ciated activity occasionally becomes so great, in the 
course of time, that the faculties seem to go through 
their operations almost without conscious effort, 
while their facility of action becomes so prodigi- 
ously increased, as to give unerring certainty where 
at first difficulty and doubt were the only results.* 

In thus acquiring readiness and forming habits, we 
merely turn to account that organic law which asso- 
ciates increased aptitude, animation, and vigour witK 
regular exercise. It is not the soul or abstract 
principle of mirtd which is thus changed, but simply 
the organic medium through which it is destined to 
act ; and, when we compare the rapid and easy elo- 
quence of the practised orator with the slow and 
embarrassed utterance which distinguished him at 
the outset of his career, we have merely a counter- 
part, in the organ of mind, of what is effected in the 
organs of motion, when the easy and graceful move- 
ments of the practised dancer, writer, or piano-forte 
player take the place of his earliest and rudest at- 
tempts. 

The necessity of judicious repetition in mental and 
moral education is in fact too little adverted to, be- 
cause the principle on which it is effectual has not 



* These remarks are curiously confirmed by an anecdote of 
SilWo Pellico, which I read in the Foreign Quarterly Review 
(No. xxii. p. 478), when this sheet was passing through the 
press. When first imprisoned, Pellico was " allowed the use of 
a copy of Dante and the Bible. Of the former, he used to com- 
mit a canto to memory every day, till a last the exercise became 
so mechanical that it ceased to afford any interruption to the train of 
melancholy thought" I need scarcely point out the coincidence 
between this and the remarks in the text. 



240 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

been understood. To induce facility of action in 
the organs of the mind, practice is as essential as it 
is in the organs of motion. The idea or feeling 
must not only be communicated, but it must be re- 
produced and represented, in different forms, till all 
the faculties concerned in understanding it come to 
work efficiently together in the conception of it. We 
often blame servants for not doing a thing every 
day, because they were once told to do so. The 
organic laws, however, teach us that we are pre- 
sumptuous in expecting the formation of a habit 
from a single act, and that we must reproduce the 
associated activity of the requisite faculties many 
times before the result will certainly follow. We 
find, on turning to a new subject, that however well 
we may understand it by one perusal, we do not 
fully master it, except by dwelling upon it again and 
again. 

Repetition is thus necessary to make a durable im- 
pression on the brain ; and, according to this prin- 
ciple, it follows that, in learning a language or 
science, six successive months of application will 
be more effectual in fixing it in the mind, and making 
it a part of its furniture, than double or triple the 
time, if interrupted by long intervals. Hence it is 
a great error to begin any study, and then break off 
to finish at a later period. The ennui is thus doubled 
and the success greatly diminished. The best way 
is to begin at the proper age, and to persevere till 
the end is attained. This accustoms the mind to 
sound exertion, and not to fits of attention. Hence 
the mischief of long vacations, and hence the evil 
of beginning studies before the age at which they 
can be understood, as in teaching the abstract rules 
of grammar to children ; to succeed in which im- 
plies in them a power of thinking, and an amount 
of general knowledge, which they cannot possess 

In physical education, we are quite alive to the 
advantages of repetition and practice. We know 



OF THE BRAIN AND MIND. 241 

that if practice in dancing, fencing, skating, and 
riding be persevered in for a sufficient length of time 
to give the muscles the requisite promptitude and 
harmony of action, the power will be ever afterward 
retained, although little called into use. Whereas, 
if we stop short of this point, we may reiterate prac- 
tice by fits and starts, without any proportionate 
advancement. The same principle applies equally 
to the moral and intellectual powers, because these 
operate by means of material organs. 

The necessity of being in private what we wish 
to appear in public springs from the same rule. If 
we wish to be polite, just, kind, and sociable, we 
must habitually act under the influence of the cor- 
responding sentiments in the domestic circle and in 
every-day life, as.well as in the company of strangers 
and on great occasions. It is the daily practice 
which gives ready activity to the sentiments, and 
marks the character. If we indulge in vulgarities of 
speech and behaviour at home, and put on politeness 
merely for the reception of strangers, the iarmer 
will shine through the mask which is intended to 
hide them ; because the habitual association to which 
the organs and faculties have been accustomed can- 
not be thus controlled. As well may we hope to 
excel in elegant and graceful dancing by the daily 
practice of every awkward attitude. In the one 
case, as in the other, the organs must not only be 
associated in action by the command of the will, but 
they must be habituated to the association by the 
frequency of the practice ; a fact which exposes the 
ignorant folly of those parents who habitually act 
with rudeness and caprice towards their children, 
and then chide the latter for unpolite behaviour to- 
wards strangers. 

The same principle, of repetition being necessary 
to make a durable impression on the brain and con- 
stitute a mental habit, also explains the manner in 
which natural endowments are modified by external 
X 



242 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

situation. Taking the average of mankind, the limits 
to which this modification may be carried are not 
narrow. Place a child, for example, of average pro- 
pensities, sentiments, and intellect, among a class 
of people — thieves — in whom the selfish faculties 
are exclusively exercised ; by whom gain is wor- 
shipped as the end of life, and cunning and cheating 
as the means, and among whom it never hears one 
word of disapprobation or moral indignation against 
either crime or sentiment ; and its lower faculties 
will be exclusively exercised and increase in strength, 
while the higher will be left unemployed and become 
weak. A child so situated will consequently not 
only act as those around do, but insensibly grow up 
resembling them in disposition and character, be- 
cause, by the law of repetition, the organs of the 
selfish faculties will have acquired proportionally 
greater aptitude and vigour, just as the muscles of 
the fencer or dancer. But suppose the same indi- 
vidual placed from infancy in the society of a supe- 
riorly endowed moral and intellectual people ; the 
moral faculties will then be habitually excited and 
their organs invigorated by repetition, till a greater 
aptitude, or, in other words, a higher moral char- 
acter, w^illhe formed. There are, of course, limits 
set to this modification by the natural endowments 
of the individual : but where the original dispositions 
are not strongly marked, the range is still a wide one. 

From this source arise many differences, not only 
of individual, but of national character, and such dif- 
ferences as we observe take place from changes of 
fortune and condition. The Negro free in Africa 
differs widely from the Negro subjected to the 
scourge of the colonist. 

The truth of these remarks is confirmed by M. 
Arago, in his account of Freycinet's Voyage round 
the World in 1818-19-20. In speaking of the dif- 
ferent results of the same education in the Isle of 
France and in the mother country, he observes, that 



OF THE BfU> AND MIND. 243 

the professors, the methods, and the subjects taught 
are quite on a par with those of Paris ; but that, 
nevertheless, from the very early maturity of the 
human being in that climate, the pupils are removed 
from schoolso soon that the impression made on 
their minds is speedily obliterated ; on which ac- 
count, he adds, the only really educated and well- 
informed men whom he met with are those who had 
been sent to France very young, and retained there 
till a later age and more thorough grounding had 
been attained, after which the risk of losing their 
acquirements was greatly diminished. 

The next rule to be observed in the cultivation 
of the brain and mental faculties, is founded on that 
law of our constitution, which directs each organ to 
he exercised directly upon its own objects, and not 
merely roused or addressed through the medium of 
another organ. We have said, that when we wish, 
for example, to teach the graceful and rapid evolu- 
tions of fencing, we do not content ourselves with 
merely giving directions, but our chief attention is 
employed in making the muscles themselves go 
through the evolutions, till, by frequent repetition 
and correction, they acquire the requisite quickness 
and precision of action ; or when we wish to teach 
music, we do not merely address the understanding 
and explain the qualities of sounds, but we train the 
ear to their attentive discrimination, and the hand 
to the reproduction of the motions which call them 
into existence. We follow this plan, because the 
laws of organization require direct practice, and we 
feel instinctively that we can succeed only by obey 
ing them. Now, the purely mental faculties, being 
connected during life with material organs, are sub- 
jected to precisely the same law; and therefore if 
we wish to improve the reasoning powers, we must 
exercise them regularly in tracing the causes and 
relations of things. And, in like manner, if our aim 



244 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

is to develop the sentiments of Attachment. Bene- 
volence, Justice, or Devotion, we must exercise 
each of them directly and for its own sake, other- 
wise neither it nor its organ will ever acquire prompti- 
tude or strength. 

It ought never to be forgotten, that in education 
it is the brain, or organ of mind, and not the abstract 
immaterial principle, which requires cultivation, and 
that hence education operates invariably in subjection 
to the laws of organization. In improving the ex- 
ternal senses, we admit this principle readily enough ; 
but whenever we come to the internal faculties of 
thought and feeling, it is either denied or neglected. 
With gross inconsistency, we admit that the superior 
quickness of touch, sight, and hearing, consequent 
upon judicious exercise, is always referable to in- 
creased facility of action in their appropriate organs ; 
but when we explain, on the same principle, the 
superior development of the reasoning powers, or 
the greater warmth of feeling produced by similar 
exercise in these and other internal faculties, few 
are inclined to listen to our proposition, or allow to 
it half the weight or attention which its importance 
requires, although every fact in philosophy and ex- 
perience concurs in supporting it. We see the men- 
tal powers of feeling and of thought unfolding them- 
selves in infancy and youth in exact accordance 
with the progress of the organization, — we see them 
perverted or suspended by the sudden inroad of dis- 
ease, and as suddenly restored : nay, we sometimes 
observe every previous acquirement obliterated from 
the adult mind by fever or by accident, leave edu- 
cation to be commenced anew, as if it had never 
been ; and yet, with all these evidences of the organic 
influence, it is still a novelty in education to propose 
that the established laws of physiology, as applied 
to the brain, should be considered as our best and 
surest guide ; and scarcely a volume can be pointed 
out in which it is even hinted that these laws have 



OF THE BRAIN AND MIND. 245 

the slightest influence over mental or moral im- 
provement. 

Were a general acquaintance with the laws of 
organization to be held as an indispensable part of 
a liberal education, we would then be able to incul- 
cate, with tenfold force and success, the necessity 
of actively exercisiug every faculty, whether of 
thought, feeling, or motion, directly on its own ob- 
jects, and at once to explode the mistake of sup- 
posing that any organ or function may be efficiently 
exercised through the medium of another, and that, 
to produce high moral feeling, it is sufficient to ad- 
dress ourselves to the intellect alone. The merest 
savage, following the footsteps of nature, would pity 
the philosopher who would seriously assure him 
that, to cultivate acuteness of hearing or ok-vision, 
it was sufficient to be told how to listen or to look. 
The savage goes more directly and surely to work. 
If he wants physical strength, agility, and swiftness 
of foot, he sets himself to develop the muscular 
system of his child by ample muscular exercise, by 
constant repetition of the movements and acts he 
wishes him to perform, and by causing him to run, 
to leap, or to swim ; and he rests in well-founded 
hope of accomplishing his purpose. Following the 
same rule when he seeks acuteness of hearing, he 
does not merely tell his child how to listen, but he 
lays him with his ear to the ground, and teaches him, 
by practice, to distinguish the qualities of sounds. 
If he wishes him to excel in hunting, in fishing, in 
lying in ambush, or in scenting the approach of an 
enemy, he expects to be successful only in propor- 
tion as he finds occasion to employ him in the prac- 
tice of these pursuits. If he wishes to inculcate 
courage in battle, contempt of pain, endurance of 
fatigue, obedience to chiefs, or revenge upon ene~ 
mies, he chooses the sure way, and cultivates each 
of these qualities by calling it into direct action od 
its own objects ; and we all know the success which 



246 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

the savage meets with in the education which he 
bestows. 

With this experience before onr eyes, then, let 
Us, who pretend to superior wisdom and civilization, 
show ourselves also consistent, and ready to receive 
instruction from whatever quarter it may come. As 
God has given us bones, and muscles, and blood- 
vessels, and nerves, for the purpose of being used, 
let us not despise the gift, but consent at once to 
turn them to account, and to reap health and vigour 
as the reward which He has associated with moder- 
ate labour. As he has given us lungs to breathe 
with, and blood to circulate, let us give up our folly 
of shutting ourselves up with so little intermission 
in rooms in inactive study and sedentary occupa- 
tions, #nd consent to inhale copiously and freely 
that wholesome atmosphere which His benevolence 
has spread around us. As He has given us appe- 
tites and organs of digestion, let us profit by His 
bounty, and earn their enjoyment by healthful exer- 
cise. As He has given us a moral and a social 
nature, which is invigorated by activity, and im- 
paired by solitude and restraint, let us cultivate good 
feeling, and act towards each other on principles of 
kindness, justice, forbearance, and mutual assist- 
ance ; and as He has given us intellect, let us exer- 
cise it in seeking a knowledge of His works and of 
His laws, and in tracing out the relation in which 
we stand towards Him, towards our fellow-men, and 
towards the various objects of the external world; 
and, in perfect faith and sincerity, let us rely upon 
His promise, that, in so doing, we shall have a 
rich reward — a reward a thousand times more pure, 
more permanent, and more delightful, than we can 
ever hope to experience in following our own blind 
devices, regardless of His will and intentions 
towards us. 

So little, however, are even educated men familiar 
with the influence and laws of the organization, that, 



O^ THE BRAIN AND MIND. 247 

even in our best directed establishments, as well as in 
private families, cultivation is still in a great measure 
confined to intellect alone ; and the direct exercise 
and training of the moral and religious sentiments 
and affections upon their own objects are rarely- 
thought of as essential to their full and vigorous 
development. Moral precepts are no doubt offered 
in abundance ; but these address themselves chiefly 
to the intellect. We must not be satisfied with 
merely exclaiming, "Be kind, just, and affectionate,' , 
when perhaps at the very moment we are counter- 
acting the effect of the advice by our own opposite 
conduct. Parents and teachers too often forget 
that the sentiments fed, and do not reason, and that, 
consequently, a mere child may, by the instinctive 
operation of its moral nature, at once detect and be 
revolted at the immorality of practices, the true 
character of which its reason is unable to penetrate 
or expose. What kind of moral education is that, 
for instance, which, while the instructress vilifies 
the physical appetites of hunger and thirst, and 
preaches disregard of their cravings and of the grati- 
fications of taste, leads her to set down a meal to 
her boarders, from partaking in which she betrays 
the strongest desire to escape, on account of its 
inferiority to that which is provided for herself and 
the few at the head of the establishment 1 What 
advances in morality and religion can be expected 
under the charge of one, who says, '' Do unto others 
as you would be done by" and then leaves his depend- 
ants to suffer pain, chilblains, and disease, from 
want of fire to warm the room in which they sit, he 
himself coming into it with features flushed by the 
heat of the blazing fire, which, for weeks, has been 
provided for his comfort in his own apartment? 
What generosity of feeling can arise from the super- 
intendence of a teacher, who, though liberally paid 
for the food of her pupils, and with moral precepts 
on her lips, satisfies the cravings of nature in the 



248 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXEkc'IStf 

long intervals between meals, only at the expense 
of the pence constituting the pocket-money of the 
scholar 1 — the food in this case being denied, not 
because it is considered improper, — for were that 
the case, it would be a dereliction of duty to give it 
on any terms, — but from sheer meanness and cu- 
pidity. What kind of moral duties does the parent 
encourage, who, recommending kindness, openness, 
and justice, tricks the child into the confession of 
faults, and then basely punishes it, having previ- 
ously promised forgiveness ! And how is openness 
best encouraged, — by practising it in conduct, or by 
neglecting it in practice, but praising it in words 1 
Is it to be cultivated by thrusting suspicions in the 
face of honest intentions ? And how is justice to be 
cultivated by a guardian who speaks about it, recom- 
mends it, and in practice charges each of four pupils 
the whole fare of a hackney-coach 1 Or what kind 
of moral education is that which says, "Do as I bid 
you, and I will give you sweetmeats or money, or 1 will 
tell your mamma how good you were ;" holding out the 
lowest and most selfish propensities as the motives 
to moral conduct ! Did space permit, I might in- 
deed pursue the whole round of moral and religious 
duties, and ask similiar questions at each. But it 
is needless. These examples will suffice ; and I give 
them, not as applicable generally either to parents 
or teachers, but simply as individual instances from 
among both, which have come within the sphere 
of my own knowledge, and which bear directly 
upon the principle under discussion. 

The moral sentiments, it may be observed, are so 
many determinate impulses given us by the Creatof 
to act in a certain way towards those around us, and 
it is not necessary that some extraordinary situa- 
tion should be waited for to give them full employ- 
ment. Benevolence, no doubt, is strongly excited 
by the aspect of misery and unhappiness, and im- 
pels strongly to the uelief of the v ufFerino: obiect 



Of THE BRAIN AND MIND. 249 

tet this is not its most common or its most useful 
Held- In ordinary life, it finds ample scope in charity 
to our neighbours, and in contributing to the happi- 
ness of our family circle and of our associates and 
dependants. Benevolence is much better occupied 
in adding a gleam of enjoyment, in removing little 
sources of irritation, in promoting concord among 
relatives, and in other kind offices of a similar nature, 
than in giving alms indiscriminately to all who de 
mand them, or even in relieving occasional distress, 
where this is held to dispense, as it too often is, 
with all obligation to habitual forbearance and Chris- 
tian good- will in the private relations of life. But 
how little is this most important faculty directly 
attended to or cultivated, in the way we see done 
with the faculties necessary for the practice of 
drawing or music, which, by incessant exercise 
procured at a great sacrifice of time, money, and 
labour, are brought into such a state of activity as 
ever after to enable their possessors to derive de- 
light from their exercise, where the talents are 
possessed in any considerable degree ! And what 
might we not expect from the systematic training of 
the higher sentiments on a similar plan, in improv- 
ing society and exalting the happiness of the race ! 
But it is evident, that the objects of benevolence 
are our fellow-creatures ; and consequently, if we 
restrict our intercourse and our sympathies to the 
limits of our own drawing-rooms, and take no in- 
terest in the progress of the race, or of the individ- 
uals composing it, we leave our best faculties in 
abeyance, and reap the reward of bodily debility and 
mental weakness and monotony. 

Conscientiousness is another principle of the 
mind that requires direct cultivation, and that rarely 
receives it. It holds the balance between man and 
man, and is excited by the presentment of any dif- 
ference of right between individuals, of any injus- 
tice, of any temptation offered by the other faculties, 



250 RULES FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE 

which may lead us to encroach on others. It gives 
a strong sense of duty, with which it is agreeable 
to act in conformity, but which it is painful and inju- 
rious to oppose. It gives weight and force to the 
impulses of the other sentiments, and, joined with 
intellect and the sentiment of devotion, gives that 
faith in the beneficence and equity of the Deity, 
and in the immutability of all his law r s, that forms 
the strongest encouragement to virtuous conduct 
and temporary self-denial. And here again, living 
in society, engaging in the active duties of life, and 
acting justly amid the conflicting interests of others, 
and not seclusion and privacy, are manifestly in- 
tended by the Creator as our proper sphere. 

I need not follow out this exposition in detail. 
The above illustrations will suffice to explain the 
principle ; and to exceed this limit would withdraw 
attention too much from the matters more directly 
before us. 

For the same reason that every faculty ought to 
be exercised directly upon its own objects, the 
exclusive use of book-education as a means of con- 
veying instruction, is manifestly unnatural as well 
as inefficient. If allowed to handle and examine a 
new object, a child will pursue the investigation 
with pleasure, and in five minxes will acquire more 
correct knowledge than by a whole hour's reading 
about its qualities without seeing it. In the one 
instance its perceptive powers are stimulated by the 
direct presence of the qualities of which they are 
destined to take cognizance ; while, in the other, 
they are roused only through the imperfect medium 
of artificial language, and the child has to create the 
object in his own mind before he can take notice of 
its qualities. When we recollect the different ideas 
which the same written language suggests to differ- 
ent mature m?nds, we may form some conception of 
the impossibility of a child making progress in this 
way, and of the weariness and ennui which the 



OF THE BRAIN AND MIND. 251 

thankless effort must always induce ; and yet, at the 
present day, in nineteen out of twenty schools, all 
the knowledge that is offered is through the medium 
of books and language alone ! 

Adequate exercise of the perceptive powers would 
require a certain amount of muscular exertion, and 
of daily exposure to the open air, in going about 
to collect and examine the varied objects of interest 
with which creation abounds. In other words, the 
perceptive faculties cannot be successfully cultivated, 
without at the same time benefiting the muscular 
system, and the organs of respiration, circulation, 
and digestion; and this grand recommendation in 
the eye of reason, viz. pursuing study in the field of 
nature instead of in books, is actually, though not 
avowedly, the circumstance which retards its adop- 
tion in ordinary education. • 

What, therefore, is wanted is a system of education 
in harmony with the constitution of the human mind, 
and a mode of life and of occupation which shall give, 
not only full play to the intellectual powers, but also 
healthy excitement and activity, and a right direction, to 
the moral, religious, and effective feelings. 

The details of such a system do not fall under the 
scope of a treatise like this ; and I must, for the 
present, content myself with the exposition of the 
general principle. A serious obstacle to entering 
upon the regular exertion here recommended re- 
quires to be noticed, as it arises from a feeling in the 
patient against which he cannot be too much on his 
guard. Where the nervous system is weak, and 
where it, of course, requires most to be strengthened, 
there is often a retiring sensitiveness of disposition, 
leading its possessor rather to avoid than to seek 
intercourse with society. Feeling the irksomeness 
of present exertion, the nervous invalid is apt to 
form the secret resolution to live in solitude till the 
mind shall become stronger, and then to seek society 
when it will no longer be a burden. Unhappily, 



L52 PHRENOLOGY. 

however, this feeling leads only to delusion, and ike 
wished-for result becomes every day more distant, 
the longer retirement and indolence are persevered 
in. It is by activity, and not by repose, that strength 
is to be acquired. We do not expect to increase 
bodily strength by lying in bed, but by stirring about ; 
and, in like manner, we shall never succeed in 
strengthening the nervous system by indulging in 
mental indolence. Many are led astray by the false 
expectation of acquiring strength without using the 
natural means from which alone strength can be 
procured. 

It may be remarked, that in the preceding pages I 
have made no allusion to the doctrines of Phre- 
nology. My reasons are simply, that, for the object 
I had in view, a special reference to them was not 
necessary, and that, in a work written for the 
general reader, and for practical purposes, I was 
naturally anxious to avoid every contested point. 
Accordingly, in limiting myself to the statement 
that different parts of the brain perform differ- 
ent functions, without specifying those connected 
with any particular part, farther than that they are 
all concerned in the mental operations, I am not 
venturing beyond what most eminent anatomists 
and physiologists in the past or present times have 
taught before me. My own sentiments on the sub- 
ject are already before the public ;* and I am bound 
to say that every day's experience increases my 
conviction of the truth of Phrenology, and deepens 
my sense of its practical value. Those who desire 
to prosecute the inquiry will find ample assistance 
in the numerous works already published, both in 
England and in France. The splendid work of Vi- 
mont would do honour to any age or country. 

* Vide Observations on Mental Derangement ; being an appli- 
cation of the Principles of Phrenology to the elucidation of the 
Causes, Symptoms, Nature, and Treatment of Insanity. 1 vol. 
post 8vo, 1831. 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 253 

I have already had frequent occasion to notice the 
direct influence exercised by the mind and brain 
over all the bodily functions, and over the general 
health. As the subject is an important one, and has 
not received all the attention which it deserves, it 
may be proper, before concluding", to offer a few 
remarks on it. 

The nervous fluid or influence presents many 
phenomena allied to those of electricity, but its real 
mature is not yet known. All that can be said is, that 
ot is an influence of a peculiar kind, originating in the 
Ibrain and nervous system ; and that, like the blood, 
it is essential to the vital action of every animal 
organ. When I move the hand in writing, the 
muscles of the arm are called into play by an influ- 
ence transmitted to them from the brain, by means 
of the soft white cords called nerves. This stimu- 
lus is so indispensable, that if the communication 
between the brain and the muscles be cut off*, by 
dividing or tying the nerve, no effort of the mind 
will longer suffice to excite them to action. In like 
manner, if the nerves of the lungs and stomach be 
cut through, so as to interrupt the flow of nervous in- 
fluence, respiration and digestion will cease, although 
in every other respect their respective organs re- 
main uninjured. 

Changes in the quality or amount of the nervous 
influence transmitted from the brain to any organ 
have thus a direct power of modifying its function. 
If, from a peculiar state of the brain, the nervous 
influence sent to the stomach be impaired, the tone 
of that organ will be also impaired, and digestion 
become imperfect ; whereas if, in consequence of 
pleasing excitement, the nervous stimulus be in- 
creased, a corresponding activity will be com- 
municated to the stomach, and digestion will be 
facilitated, as is experienced after a dinner in 
pleasant society. But if, by a violent burst of pas- 
sion or grief, the brain be inordinately excited, so 



254 INFLUENCE OF THE BRAlff ON HEALTH. 

as to send forth a stimulus vitiated in quality, the 
stomach which receives it will partake in the dis» 
order, and hence the sudden loathing and sickness 
so often induced by unexpected bad news, vexation, 
or alarm. 

Something analogous to this is still more visibly 
exhibited in the case of the muscles. If the mind 
be active and decided, the muscles, receiving a 
strong stimulus, move with readiness and force ; but 
if the cerebral activity be impaired by bilious de- 
pression, muscular action becomes slow, infirm, and 
indolent : whereas, if the brain be excited by strong 
passion, and the stimulus be impetuous, the move- 
ments instantly become energetic and decided ; and, 
if the excitement be carried stillfarther,the regulated 
muscular contraction passes the limits of health, and 
becomes involuntary and convulsive. 

As the quality of the nervous influence depends 
on the condition of the brain, that which springs 
from a brain of which all the parts are in sound and 
vigorous action is the best. Mental indolence and 
high mental excitement are alike inimical to bodily 
health ; and consequently our great aim ought to be 
to secure for every mental power, moral as well as 
intellectual, that equal and regular exercise from 
which alone the proper nervous stimulus can spring. 

It is indeed interesting to observe the various 
effects of the nervous influence, according to the 
faculties in predominant action at the time it is pro- 
duced. If the higher feelings have the ascendency, 
and the more selfish propensities be merely suffi- 
ciently active to give force to the character, without 
exciting contention in the mind itself, the nervous 
influence is the most grateful and efficient which 
can be imagined for sustaining the healthy co-ope- 
ration of the whole body. This result follows, 
because the Creator evidently designed such a state 
of mind to be the best and happiest for man himself, 
and therefore took care to surround him with every 
motive to induce him to enter into it. 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 255 

If, however, the lower feelings be in great activ- 
ity, and the mind be at variance with itself, and 
filled with designs and emotions repulsive to our 
moral sentiments ; or if it be oppressed with grief, 
anxiety, or remorse, the stimulus which it commu- 
nicates is far from beneficial, being no longer in 
accordance with the conditions designed by the 
Creator. It is in such circumstances, accordingly, 
that bad health is so often seen to arise from the 
state of the mind, and that suffering is produced 
which no art can relieve till the primary cause be 
removed. 

The same result follows over-exercise of intellect, 
and the non-activity of the feelings. From the con- 
centration of vital action in one part of the brain, 
the stomach and other organs are unprovided with 
the requisite nervous stimulus, and become impaired 
in their functions ; and hence the dyspeptic and 
hypochondriacal symptoms which so often render 
life a burden to literary men. Persons so situated, 
when advised to attend to diet, often answer that it 
is in vain, and that, while at times nothing can be 
digested, at other times, perhaps within a few hours 
or days, nothing comes amiss, — the power of diges- 
tion varying thus quickly, according to their mental 
condition. Whereas, when indigestion arises from 
a primary affection of the stomach, the least devia- 
tion in the way of indulgence proves injurious. In 
both instances, attention to diet is beneficial, but in 
the one it is less rigidly important than in the other. 

The influence of the brain on the digestive organs 
is so direct, that sickness and vomiting are among 
the earliest symptoms of many affections of the 
head, and of wounds and injuries of the brain; 
while violent emotions, intense grief, or sudden 
bad news sometimes arrest at once the progress 
of digestion, and produce squeamishness or loathing 
of food, although an instant before the appetite was 



256 INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 

keen. Narcotics, the direct action of which is on 
the brain, have a similar effect on the stomach. 

The influence of the mind and brain over the 
action of the heart and lungs is familiar to every 
one. The sighing, palpitation, and fainting, sc often 
witnessed as consequences of emotions of the mind, 
are evidences which nobody can resist. Death itself 
s not a rare result of such excitement in delicately 
rganized persons. 

This law of our constitution, whereby the regu- 
lated activity of both intellect and feeling is made 
essential to sound bodily health, seems to me one 
of the most beautiful arrangements of an all-wise 
and beneficent Creator. If we shun the society of 
our fellow-creatures, and shrink from taking a share 
in the active duties of life, mental indolence and 
physical debility beset our path. Whereas if, by 
engaging in the business of life and taking an active 
interest in the advancement of society, we duly 
exercise our various powers of perception, thought, 
and feeling ; we promote the health of the whole 
corporeal system, invigorate the mind itself, and at 
the same time experience the highest mental grati- 
fication of which a human being is susceptible, viz. 
that of having fulfilled the end and object of our 
being, in the active discharge of our duties to God, 
to our fellow-men, and to ourselves. If we neglect 
our faculties or deprive them of their objects, we 
weaken the organization, give rise to distressing 
diseases, and at the same time experience the bit- 
terest feelings that can afflict humanity — ennui and 
melancholy. The harmony thus shown to exist 
between the moral and physical world is but another 
example of the numerous inducements to that right 
conduct and activity, in pursuing which the Creator 
has evidently destined us to find terrestrial happi- 
ness. 

The reader will now understand why the state of 
the mind is so influential in the production and pro- 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH, 257 

gress of disease. In the army this principle has 
often been exemplified in a very striking manner, 
and on so large a scale as to put its influence beyond 
a doubt. Sir George Ballingall mentions, in his 
excellent lectures on Military Surgery, that the 
proportion of sick in garrison in a healthy country, 
and under favourable circumstances, is about five 
per cent.; but that, during a campaign, the usua 
average is nearer ten per cent. So marked, how- 
ever, are the preservative effects of cheerfulness and 
the excitement of success, that, according to Vaidy, 
the French army cantoned in Bavaria, after the bat- 
tle of Austerlitz, had only 109 sick in a division of 
6000 men, being little more than one in the hundred. 
When, on the other hand, an army is subjected to 
privations, or " is discouraged by defeat or want of 
confidence in its chiefs" the proportion of sick is 
u of ten fearfully increased."* 

The same principle explains why it is so import- 
ant for the physician to carry the feelings of the 
patient along with him in his curative measures. It 
is well known, for example, that those who live in 
constant apprehension of fever, cholera, or other 
ailment are generally among its first victims when 
exposed to its cause. The reason is obvious. The 
depressing nervous influence resulting from the pain- 
ful activity of the selfish feelings affects all the 
functions of the body, and places them on the brink 
of disease, even before any external cause is in ope- 
ration ; and hence the easy inroad the latter makes 
when it comes into play. 

So efficacious, on the other hand, is a more cheer- 
ful state of mind, from the more healthful nervous 
influence which it diffuses through the frame, that 
surprising recoveries occasionally happen, which 
can be ascribed to no other cause but this. A sin- 
gular but instructive instance fell under the observa- 

* Medico-Chirurgical Review, No. xxxvi p. 430. 

Ye 



258 INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 

tion of Sir Humphry Davy, when, early in life, he 
was assisting Dr. Beddoes in his experiments on 
the inhalation of nitrous oxide. Dr. Beddoes having 
inferred that the oxide must be a specific for palsy, 
a patient was selected for trial, and placed under the 
care of Davy. Previously to administering the gas, 
Davy inserted a small thermometer under the tongue 
of the patient to ascertain the temperature. The 
paralytic man, wholly ignorant of the process to 
which he was to submit, but deeply impressed by 
Dr. Beddoes with the certainty of its success, no 
sooner felt the thermometer between his teeth than 
he concluded the talisman was in operation, and in 
a burst of enthusiasm declared that he had already 
experienced the effects of its benign influence 
throughout his whole body. The opportunity was 
too tempting to be lost. Davy did nothing more, 
but desired his patient to return on the following 
day. The same ceremony was repeated, the same 
result followed ; and at the end of a fortnight he was 
dismissed cured, no remedy of any kind, except the 
thermometer, having ever been used.* Quacks 
profit largely by taking advantage of this principle 
of our nature ; and regular practitioners would do 
well to bestow more pains than they do in assisting 
their treatment by well-directed moral influence. 
Baglivi was deeply impressed with this sentiment 
when he said, " I can scarcely express how much 
the conversation of the physician influences even 
the life of his patient, and modifies his complaints. 
For a physician powerful in speech, and skilled in 
addressing the feelings of a patient, adds so much 
to the power of his remedies, and excites so much 
confidence in his treatment, as frequently to over- 
come dangerous diseases with very feeble remedies, 
which more learned doctors, languid and indifferent 

* Paris's Life of Davy, p. 51 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 259 

m speech, could not have cured with the best reme- 
dies that man could produce." 

Every one, indeed,, who has either attended in- 
valids, or been an invalid himself, must often have 
remarked, that the visit of a kind and intelligent 
friend is highly useful in dispelling uneasy sensa- 
tions, and in promoting recovery by increased cheer- 
fulness and hope. The true reason of this is simply, 
that such intercourse interests the feelings, and 
affords an agreeable stimulus to several of the 
largest organs in the brain, and thereby conduces 
to the diffusion of a healthier and more abundant 
nervous energy over the whole system. The extent 
of good which a man of kindly feelings and a ready 
command of his ideas and language may do in this 
way, is much beyond what is generally believed ; 
and if this holds in debility arising from general 
causes, in which the nervous system is affected, not 
exclusively, but only as a part of the body, it must 
hold infinitely more in nervous debility and in ner- 
vous disease; for then, indeed, the moral manage- 
ment is truly the medical remedy, and differs from 
the latter only in this, that its administration depends 
on the physician, and not on the apothecary, — on the 
friend, and not on the indifferent attendant. 

The powerfully stimulating effect of mental ex- 
citement on the bodily functions is familiar to every 
one, and is duly noticed in the works of the novelist 
and poet. In nine cases out of ten, a visit to a 
watering-place, or a journey through an interesting 
country, does more good by the beneficial excite- 
ment which it gives to the mind and brain, than by 
all the other circumstances put together. It is 
indeed greatly to the credit of the medical depart- 
ments of both army and navy, that the influence of 
the mind in preserving and restoring health is more 
correctly appreciated and provided for than it is 
even in private practice. In the late expeditions of 
discovery to the Northern Regions, the utmost 



260 INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH* 

attention was bestowed by the enlightened com- 
manders to keep up a healthful vivacity of intellect 
and feeling among their men, by constant occupation, 
intellectual instruction, the representation of plays, 
masquerades, and other amusing and exciting exer- 
tions ; and there cannot be a doubt, that their re- 
markable immunity from disease was in no small 
degree owing to these admirable arrangements : and 
hence the immense importance which attaches to 
the selection of a humane and considerate as well 
as scientific commander. 

In the second volume of Captain Basil Hall's first 
series of Fragments of Voyages and Travels, the 
reader will find a chapter on " The Effects of being 
well commanded" which illustrates, very amusingly, 
many of the principles explained in the preceding 
pages. " People," he says, " who have no acquaint- 
ance with the intricacies of naval discipline can 
scarcely comprehend how vast a difference is made 
in the efficiency of a man-of-war by the character 
of the commander." — "Early in the year 1805, we 
were made abundantly sensible of the truth of this 
remark, by an important change which took place 
in the highest office on board. From a state of lan- 
guid inefficiency, we started in a single moment 
into the m-ost vigorous activity, and from being 
almost the laughing-stock of the fleet, for the clum- 
siness of our gait, and the want of success which 
attended our cumbrous exertions, we soon out- 
stripped them all, not only in the activity, but in the 
useful result of our services." — (p. 2.) 

The new captain was a man who knew his pro- 
fession, and possessed that decision of character 
which makes its weight instinctively felt. Between 
certain disgrace and punishment to offenders, and 
" high favour to those who took pains to do right, 
the ship was speedily brought into proper trim. 
Every thing now seemed alive, and moved smartly; 
no time ran to waste ; even the indolent and the ill- 



INFLUENCE OF THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 261 

disposed found their best interest in working well. 
The decks became cleaner than they had ever been 
before ; the people dressed themselves more tidily ; 
the sails looked better furled ; the yards better 
squared; the complaints of inattention and drunkenness 
grew daily less frequent, and an air of general happi- 
ness, as well as new-born energy, spread itself over the 
whole ship" — " So magical indeed was the effect of 
this change, that I dare swear we should then have 
engaged and beaten an enemy, whom it might not 
have been considered by any means prudent to have 
brought to action a week before." — (p. 17.) 

Captain Hall gives other examples of the same 
principle, and remarks, that in this way the simple 
fact of Nelson joining the fleet off Trafalgar was al- 
most equivalent to double manning every ship in the 
line. The explanation which he gives of the " mys- 
terious agency" by which the genius of a command- 
ing officer imparts a portion of its spirit to every one 
under his orders is perfectly philosophical. "When 
a person of talents is placed under an able com- 
mander, he feels confident that nothing he does will 
be passed without notice, and consequently that his 
exertions must tell to his advantage, exactly in pro- 
portion as their utility makes itself felt. This con- 
sciousness will, of course, stimulate him to fresh 
endeavours to excel ; and, from thus feeling sure 
that his conduct is duly appreciated, he has an im- 
mediate motive to bring his whole strength into 
play — an exercise which must ever produce good 
results." 

But " suppose the case differently put, and let the 
superior in station be the inferior in abilities or ex- 
perience, or not so zealous in the execution of his 
duty as the men he commands. The situation of 
the inferior is now far from being so independent, or 
so well calculated to draw forth his powers, as it 
was in the first case. The subordinate officer has 
no longer the same animated stimulus to exertion ; 



262 INFLURNCE OF THE BRaIN ON HEALTH. 

for, his labours being generally unnoticed, or their 
results unappreciated, he is left without much en- 
couragement to proceed in fresh endeavours to 
excel ; while his faculties, instead of improving, through 
generous exercise, are often deteriorated by the languid 
manner in which they are brought into play." — (p. 6.) 

Captain Hall justly observes, that the influence of 
the commander on men of moderate talents is still 
more striking, as they stand more in need of a stim- 
ulus to duty. " If a commander has skill enough to 
enlist the sympathies of those placed under his or- 
ders, they will feel insensibly drawn on to make 
common cause with him, and will afterward exert 
themselves strenuously to maintain that degree of 
importance derived from this implied companionship 
in ability which they could hardly hope to reach 
single-handed." — " The invariable effect of these 
efforts is to improve the character. Such training 
will certainly not make a clever man out of a stupid 
one ; but it may often render a discontented or use- 
less man of service to himself and the state : and, 
instead of his continuing a wretched and hopeless 
being, may convert him into one who is happy and 
confident of success." 

" I suspect, however, that no one who has not been 
an eye-witness of the condition of a ship under the 
command of an ignorant, trifling, or otherwise inef- 
ficient captain, can have any notion of the mischiev- 
ous effects of his misrule, or rather of his no rule. 
Perhaps, in the long-run, almost every degree of con- 
sistent severity is preferable to the uncertain, hig- 
gledy-piggledy kind of discipline on board a man-of- 
war in what is called slack-order. The moderately 
gifted persons feeling that, in these circumstances, 
they have no chance of notice by any exertions of 
their own, speedily degenerate into a sort of vege- 
tables, so incapable of any useful exertion that they 
infest the ship like the fungus called the dry-rot. 
This chaotic period is the holyday season of the 



INFLUENCE Ofr THE BRAIN ON HEALTH. 263 

scamps and skulkers, who then fancy their game the 
surest. These fellows certainly succeed in working 
as little as possible, and in making those about them 
unhappy ; but, after all, without any great accession 
to their own comfort." 

" This system," continues Captain Hall, " dis- 
courages the cheerful and willing workers by the 
oppression of its injustice — a feeling which speedily 
takes away or deadens some of the best motives to 
improvement. Such a captain, unwilling to see 
that he himself is in fault, ascribes the evil to 
others ; and, " by his unfair censure of those who, in 
fact, are the most deserving of commendation, he 
scatters the seeds of discouragement over all the dif- 
ferent classes exposed to his unskilful handling, and 
every thing falls into confusion worse confounded.'''' — 
(p. 10.) The loss of the French frigate Medusa, on 
the coast of Africa, in 1817, and the tremendous suf- 
fering which instantly ensued from the state of an- 
archy and uproar which took place among the crew, 
are well known to have arisen entirely from the in- 
sufficiency and headstrong conceit of a weak and ig- 
norant commander, and afford a strong contrast to 
the admirable coolness and high-toned moral feeling 
displayed on the similar occasion of the wreck of 
the Alceste, on her return from China with Lord 
Amherst, and which also made a deep impression, 
but of a widely different description, on the public 
mind. 

From the above quotations, the influence which 
he qualities of the commander may exert on the 
health, as well as the discipline, of those under his 
orders, may easily be inferred. So important, in- 
deed, are cheerfulness and confidence, as conditions 
of health, that if two ships were to be sent out to 
circumnavigate the globe, each equal to the other in 
every respect, except the one being under the di- 
rection of a humane, vivacious, and considerate man, 
and the other of a lymphatic, selfish, and tyrannical 



264 SOURCES OF BAD HEALTH. 

commander, though both were equal in talent, it is 
quite certain that the fate of the crews would be 
widely different, and that sickness would prevail 
much more in the one than in the other. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Causes of bad Health — Not always the Result of moral or im 
moral Conduct — Nor of Accident — But of the Infringement 
of the Laws of Organization — Proofs from past History — 
Diminished Mortality from Increase of Knowledge, and better 
Fulfilment of the Conditions of Health — The Expeditions of 
Anson and Cook contrasted— Gratifying Results of the Sana- 
tory Arrangements of Ross r Parry, and Franklin— Pulmonary 
Diseases in the Channel Fleet, from Ignorance of Physiology 
—Rates of Mortality in different Ages and Countries — Causes 
of late Improvements — Condition of wealthier and poorer 
Classes compared — Good done by the Apprehension of Chol- 
era — Influence of Habit — Neglect of organic Laws in Re- 
cruiting Service — Examples — Conclusion. 

The reader will now be prepared to take a correct 
view of a question on which it especially interests 
us to have true and precise notions. I allude to the 
real origin of bad health. On this point very vague 
and contradictory opinions are prevalent ; and, as 
our conduct in life must necessarily be closely de- 
pendent on our views in regard to this subject, I 
cannot do better, before concluding, than devote a 
chapter to its consideration. 

Setting aside, for the present, hereditary tenden- 
cies to disease (which must have begun at first with 
some progenitor, from ordinary causes, and which, 
therefore, are not really unconnected with the in- 
quiry), bad health may be regarded in three different 
lights : First, As having no necessary connexion 
with our conduct, but as being the result of circum- 



SOURCES OF BAD HEALTH. 265 

stances entirely beyond our knowledge and control, 
and sent by a superintending Providence, not to urge 
us to more rational care, but to soften our hearts, 
and warn us from sin ; Secondly, As the result of 
accident alone, or of external influences which we 
can appreciate, but from which it is impossible to 
withdraw ourselves ; and, Thirdly, As, in every in- 
stance, the result of the direct infringement of one or 
more of the laws or conditions decreed by the Creator 
to be essential to the well-being and activity of every 
bodily organ, and the knowledge and observance of 
which are to a great extent within our own power. 

According as one or other of those views shall be 
adopted, the most opposite practical results will 
follow. If the first be received as the truth, and 
health and sickness be viewed as dispensed without 
reference to our bodily conduct, but solely as a 
means of reclaiming us from sin, attention to our 
moral and religious improvement alone will be our 
best protection, and any attempt to avert bad health, 
by studying and obeying the laws which regulate 
the bodily functions, will be entirely useless. If, 
again, the second principle be correct, and disease 
arise from accident and from influences beyond our 
control, then neither our moral nor our bodily con- 
duct will avail us as a protection, and our only re- 
source will be humble resignation to the will of God. 
But if the third be true, and the human frame be 
constructed by the Creator on principles calculated 
to carry on life for seventy years, and if de facto a 
large proportion of the race perish before attaining 
ten years of age, chiefly from infringing the conditions 
on which the due performance of the various vital 
functions depends, it then becomes an object of great 
interest to us to study the structure of our organs, 
to discover the laws which regulate their functions, 
and to yield to those laws that implicit obedience 
from which alone health can spring. 

That the strictest observance of the moral laws. 
Z 



266 BAD HEALTH CAUSED BY 

and the purest devotion of which human nature is 
capable, are insufficient to secure health to the body, 
without a simultaneous observance of the organic 
laws, is too clearly proved by the instances already 
adduced, and by the history of mankind, to require 
any demonstration here. The biographies of the 
pious and excellent furnish abundant examples to the 
contrary ; while the annals of crime afford numerous 
instances of men of the most depraved characters 
enjoying unbroken health. If, indeed, the organic 
conditions be fulfilled, the upright man will enjoy a 
serenity of health which the criminal can never 
know ; but the moral observance alone will not avail 
him, if he at the same time neglect the organic laws. 

In regard to the second proposition, a little reflec- 
tion will satisfy every intelligent mind that it is 
equally untenable, and that disease is not always the 
result of accident or circumstances which cannot be 
modified. There are causes of bad health against 
which even the most stupid and prejudiced take 
some precautions, and with success ; and the whole 
art of medicine would be a grosser delusion than ever 
romancer believed it to be, if health were not in- 
fluenced by circumstances within our control. All 
our remedies, and all the effects of diet, clothing, 
and regimen, are indications of the contrary per- 
suasion. There are, indeed, agencies from which 
we shall probably never be able entirely to protect 
ourselves. Such are variations in the state of the 
atmosphere, epidemic and contagious causes, and 
necessary exposure, in pursuance of higher duties, 
to known unhealthy influences ; but, allowing for all 
these, ample scope remains, within which man may, 
by an extension of his knowledge and industry, 
provide himself with safe-guards far beyond what 
he has ever yet done, or has ever dreamed of ac- 
complishing. 

The third view, or that which ascribes bad health to 
the infringement of some one or more of the organic 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 267 

laws, thus presents itself as the only one in accord- 
ance with observation and past experience ; and. 
after the full exposition I have already given of the 
conditions of health of various important organs, I 
trust little further proof will be required. At the 
same time, as the principle is full of practical value, 
I will take a short review of some facts which go 
far to establish its accuracy. 

Considering that the human frame is constructed 
to endure, in many cases, for sixty, seventy, or 
eighty years, it must seem extraordinary to a re- 
flecting mind that, in some situations, one-half of 
all who are born should die before attaining ma- 
turity ; and that, of 1000 infants born and reared in 
London, G50 die before the age of ten years. It is 
impossible to suppose that such a rate of mortality 
was designed by the Creator as the unavoidable fate 
of man ; for, by the gradual improvement of society 
and a closer observance of the organic laws, the pro- 
portion of deaths in early life has already been greatly 
reduced. A hundred years ago, when the pauper in- 
fants of London were received and brought up in 
the workhouses, amid impure air, crowding, and 
want of proper food, not above one in twenty- 
four lived to be a year old ; so that out of 2800 
received into them, 2690 died yearly. But when 
the conditions of health came to be a little better 
understood, and an act of Parliament was obtained 
obliging the parish officers to send the infants to 
nurse in the country, this frightful mortality was 
reduced to 450, instead of upwards of 2600 ! Can 
evidence stronger than this be required to prove 
that bad health frequently arises from causes which 
man may often be able to discover and remove, and 
which, therefore, it is his bounden duty to investigate 
and avoid by every means which Providence has 
placed within his reach ? 

The different rates of mortality in crowded cities 
and country villages equally demonstrate the influ- 



268 KNOWLEDGE HAS DIMINISHED DISEASE, 

ence of bad air, crowding, and imperfect food, in 
abridging life. Even in the best-managed commu- 
nities, the number, not only of the sick of all ages, 
but of those who are cut off in early youth, is so 
prodigious as to show that we are far from having 
arrived at the maximum of health of which the race 
is susceptible ; while the advance we have already 
;made gives us every reason to hope that, by per- 
severance and the extension of our knowledge, we 
may continue to improve for many centuries to 
come. 

The progress of knowledge, and the increasing 
ascendency of reason, have already delivered us 
from many scourges which were regarded by our 
forefathers as unavoidable dispensations of an in- 
scrutable Providence. In the days of the ancient 
Romans, their capital and territories were frequently 
almost depopulated by visitations of plague and 
pestilence, from which the present generation is, 
by a stricter observance of the conditions of health, 
entirely exempted. In London, in like manner, the 
same contempt of cleanliness, ventilation, and com- 
fort which was so fatal to the Romans produced simi- 
lar results, and swept off its thousands and tens of 
thousands, till a fortunate disaster — the great fire — 
came in the place of knowledge, and, by destroying 
the crowded lanes and other sources of impurity, 
which man had shown himself so little solicitous to 
remove, procured for its inhabitants a perfect and per- 
manent immunity from one of the deadliest forms of 
disease, — and taught them the grand practical truth, 
that such awful visitations are not wanton inflictions 
of a vengeful Providence,but the direct consequences 
of our non-observance of those conditions by which 
the various vital functions are regulated, and by 
conforming to which alone health can be preserved. 
Accordingly, by greater attention to proper food, 
cleanliness, and pure air, London, with its gigantic 
population, now flourishes in comparative security, 



KNOWLEDGE HAS DIMINISHED DISEASE. 269 

and scarcely feels the ravages of an epidemic which 
has inflicted a blow on some less fortunate cities, 
the effects of which will be long remembered. 

Small-pox is another scourge which annually 
carried off its thousands, and from which modern 
science bids fair to protect us ; although half a cen- 
tury ago, any one who might have ventured to ex- 
press such an expectation would have been ridiculed 
for his credulity. Even before Jenner's immortal 
discovery of vaccination, the improvement of medi- 
cal science consequent on a better knowledge of the 
structure and functions of the human body had 
greatly mitigated the fatality of small-pox. For- 
merly the patients were shut up, loaded with bed- 
clothes, in heated rooms, from which every particle 
of fresh air was excluded, and stimulants were ad- 
ministered, as if on purpose to hasten the fate of the 
sick. But sounder views of the wants of the animal 
economy at last prevailed ; and, by the admission of 
fresh air, the removal of every thing heating or 
stimulating, and the administration of cooling drinks 
and other appropriate remedies, thousands were 
preserved whose lives would have been lost under 
the mistaken guidance of the older physicians. 

As late as the middle of the last century, ague was 
so prevalent in many parts of Britain, where it is now 
never seen, that our ancestors looked upon an attack 
of it as a kind of necessary evil, from which they 
could never hope to be delivered. In this instance 
also, farther experience has shown that Providence 
was not in fault. By draining the land, removing 
dunghills, building better houses in better situations, 
and obtaining better food and warmer clothing, it 
appears that generations now succeed each other, 
living on the very same soil, without a single case 
of ague ever occurring, where, a century ago, every 
man, woman, and child was almost sure to suffer 
from it at one time or other of their lives ; thus 
again showing how much man may do for the pres- 



270 CONTRAST BETWEEN THE EXPEDITIONS 

ervation of his health and the improvement of his 
condition, when his conduct is directed by knowledge 
and sound principles. 

If we wish for a still more admirable proof of the 
same practical truth, we have only to compare the 
condition of our seamen, in maritime expeditions 
undertaken a century ago, with their lot in the 
present day, — the expedition against Carthagena, 
or that of Anson, for instance, with those of Cook, 
Parry, and Ross ; or the health enjoyed by the crew 
of the Valorous, with that of the seamen in the 
other vessels lying in the same harbour.* 

Anson set sail from England, on 13th September, 
1740, in the Centurion, of 60 guns and 400 men, 
accompanied by the Gloucester, of 50 guns and 300 
men; the Pearl, of 40 guns and 250 men; the Wager, 
of 28 guns and 160 men ; the Tryal sloop, of 8 guns 
and 100 men, and two victuallers, one of 400, and 
the other of 200 tons. They had a long run to Ma- 
deira, and thence to the coast of Brazil, where they 
arrived on the 18th December ; but, by this time, 
the crews were remarkably sickly, so that many 
died, and great numbers were confined to their ham- 
mocks. The commodore now ordered "six air- 
scuttles to be cut in each ship, to admit more air 
between the decks" and took other measures to cor- 
rect the M noisome stench on board," and destroy 
the vermin, which nuisances had become " very 
loathsome ;" " and, besides being most intolerably of- 
fensive, they were doubtless, in some sort, productive 
of the sickness under which we had laboured." 
Such is the mild language used by the chaplain, Mr. 
Walter, in communicating these appalling truths! 
On anchoring at St. Catharine's, 80 patients were 
sent on shore from the Centurion alone, of whom 
28 soon died, and the number of sick increased to 96. 
Although this was nothing compared to what took 

♦ Vide, p. 69. 



OF ANSON AND COOK. 271 

pl<m« afterward, it is nevertheless worthy of remark, 
for as yet they had suffered no privations or unusual 
hardships, except from contrary winds. The causes 
of disease lay entirely within themselves. 

After a stormy and tedious navigation of three 
months round Cape Horn, scurvy carried off 43 more 
in the month of April, and double that number in 
May, 1741. Those who remained alive now became 
more dispirited and melancholy than ever ; which 
" general dejection added to the virulence of the disease , 
and the mortality increased to a frightful degree." On 
9th June, when in sight of Juan Fernandez, the de- 
bility of the people was so great that, 200 being 
already dead, the lieutenant could muster only two 
quarter-masters and six foremast men able for duty 
in the middle watch ; so that, had it not been for the 
assistance of the officers, servants, &c. they would 
have been unable to reach the island, — to such a 
condition was a crew of 400 men reduced in the 
course of a few months ! 

I have noticed the cutting of holes for the admis- 
sion of air between decks, and the dejection of the 
men. The narrative proceeds to say, that the com- 
modore's principal attention was now devoted to get- 
ting the sick on shore, as they were dying fast on 
board, " the distemper being doubtless considerably 
augmented by the stench and filthiness in which they lay, 
for few could be spared to look after them, which ren- 
dered the ship extremely loathsome between decks." 
The officers suffered least, as being the best fed and 
best lodged. Within a year, out of upwards of 1200 
men, composing the crews of the squadron who had 
sailed from England, 335 alone remained. 

The fate of the Spanish squadron which sailed 
nearly at the same time was still more horrible. The 
Esperanza, of 50 guns, lost 392 out of 450 men, and 
the other ships almost as large a proportion. It is 
true that, in doubling Cape Horn, they encountered 
the severest weather and the greatest privations, 



272 EXCELLENT HEALTH IN COOK'S VOYAGES. 

and that their deplorable fate was aggravated by 
these causes. But when we look to the conduct of 
later navigators, in circumstances equally trying, it 
is impossible to resist the gratifying conviction, that 
mortality like this forms no part of the designs of a 
beneficent Providence, and that, for the best of pur- 
poses, our safety is placed, to a great extent, within 
the limits of our own power. The late memorable 
expeditions of Parry, of Franklin, and more espe- 
cially of Ross, who, with few resources, spent up- 
wards of four years in the desolate regions of the 
north, with scarcely any loss of life, are examples 
pregnant with meaning to all who are interested in 
the future progress of man. 

It may be said that the climate and situation of 
the two parties w T ere dissimilar. In some respects 
the objection is well founded ; but Cook's second 
voyage round the world, in 1772, affords a parallel 
presenting so many points of resemblance to that 
of Anson, that no one can reasonably object to their 
comparison. On this occasion, the vessels selected 
were the Resolution, carrying 112 men, and the 
Adventure, with a crew of 81. Enlightened by for- 
mer experience, Cook spared no pains to effect his 
equipment in the completest manner, and to lay in 
such stores of clothing and provisions as he knew 
to be useful in preserving the health of those under 
his command. Among these were malt, sour krout, 
portable broth, sugar, and wheat. Care was taken 
to expose the men to wet as little as possible, to 
make them shift themselves after being wet, and to 
keep their persons, hammocks, bedding, and clothes per- 
fectly clean and dry. Equal attention was paid to 
keep the ship clean and dry between decks ; once or 
twice a week it was aired with fires ; and a fire was 
also frequently made at the bottom of the well, 
which was of great use in purifying the air in the 
lower parts of the ship. To the last precaution too 
great attention cannot be paid ; as the least neglect 



EXCELLENT HEALTH IN COOK's VOYAGES. 273 

occasions a putrid and disagreeable smell below 
which nothing but fires can remove. Fresh water, 
vegetables, and fresh provisions were also eagerly 
sought for at every opportunity ; and these it was 
Captain Cook's practice to oblige his people to make 
use of by his own example and authority. The re- 
sults of these measures we shall now see. 

The two ships sailed on 13th July, 1772. To- 
wards the end of August, when advancing towards 
the south, the rain " poured down, not in drops but 
in streams ; and the wind at the same time being 
variable and rough, the people were obliged to attend 
so constantly upon the deck, that few of them 
escaped being completely soaked ;" but although 
rain is a great promoter of sickness in warm cli- 
mates, the airing by fires between decks, and the 
other precautions, were so effectual, that, on arriv- 
ing at the Cape of Good Hope, only one man was on 
the sick-list; whereas we have seen that, after a 
similar voyage, the Centurion arrived on the coast 
of Brazil with 80 sick, of whom 28 soon died. As 
we proceed, the contrast becomes still more strik- 
ing. On 22d November, Cook sailed from the Cape 
in search of a southern continent. On the 29th, a 
violent storm, attended with hail and rain, came on, 
and caused the loss of most of their live-stock ; and 
a sudden transition took place from warm and mild 
to extremely cold and wet weather, which was se- 
verely felt by the people. On 10th December they 
met with islands of ice ; and, from that time till the 
middle of March, continued their search for land 
with unremitting diligence, amid cold, hardships, 
and dangers, such as we can form a very imperfect 
idea of; and, at last, on 26th March, after being 117 
days at sea, during which they had sailed 3660 
leagues, they came to anchor in Dusky Bay, New- 
Zealand. " After so long a voyage," says Dr. Kip- 
pis, from whose Life of Cook these particulars are 
taken, "in a high southern latitude, it might cer- 



274 EXCELLENT HEALTH IN COOK's VOYAGES. 

tainly have been expected that many of Captain 
Cook's people would be ill of scurvy. This, how- 
ever, was not the case. So salutary were the effects 
of the sweetwort and several articles of provision, 
and especially of the frequent airings and sweetening 
of the ship, that there was only one man on board 
who could be said to be much afflicted with the dis- 
; ease ; and even in that man it was chiefly occa- 
sioned by a bad habit of body, and a complication 
Df other disorders." 

Can any thing be conceived more demonstrative 
of the advantages to be derived from investigating 
and obeying the laws of health, than these splendid 
results, when contrasted with those on board of the 
Centurion 1 In the Resolution, cheerful activity, 
cleanliness, dry pure air, adequate clothing, and a 
suitable regimen were found to carry man unscathed 
through hardships and exposure, which, in the Cen- 
turion, from neglect of the same protective means, 
were severe enough to sweep off a large proportion 
of her crew. And, as if on purpose to place the 
efficacy of these measures beyond a doubt, it ap- 
pears, that, in the month of July, 1773, the Adven- 
ture had many sick, and twenty of her best men in- 
capable of duty from scurvy and flux, when the 
Resolution, with a larger crew, had only three men 
sick, and only one of them from scurvy. This dif- 
ference in the state of health of the two ships was 
distinctly traced to the crew of the Adventure having 
eaten few or no vegetables when in Queen Char- 
lotte's Sound, while, on board of the Resolution, 
Cook was most particular in enforcing attention to 
this part of their dietetic regimen. 

By thi? admirable care and unwearied watchful- 
ness on the part of Cook and his officers, the Reso- 
lution performed a voyage of three years and eigh- 
teen days, through all climates, from 52° north to 71° 
south, with the loss of only one man by disease out 
of 112! And in his last voyage, so efficaciously 



RESULTS IN THE NORTHERN EXPEDITIONS. 275 

were the same means put in practice, that his ship 
was brought home, after an absence of four years, 
without the loss of a single man by disease ! 

Similar results were obtained by the able com- 
manders of our more recent expeditions to the 
Northern Regions. The Fury and Hecla were, at 
one time, no less than twenty-seven months entirely 
dependent on their own resources, before scurvy began 
to make its appearance ; and at the end of 28J 
months, both ships returned home (in September, 
1823) with the loss of only five men, — a result 
which, a century ago, could hardly have occurred, 
and which, even at the present day, is a remark- 
able indication of the talent and humanity of the 
officers by whom it was effected. 

Nothing, in fact, could have been better devised 
than the means practised in these expeditions to 
preserve the health of the people ; and did my limits 
permit it, I might illustrate almost every principle 
in this volume by a reference to its actual efficacy 
as displayed in these voyages. Not only were the 
conditions of health attended to as regarded the 
skin, the muscles, the bones, the lungs, and the 
digestive organs ; but the health of the all-import- 
ant nervous system was sedulously provided for by 
the constant and cheerful occupation of the people 
in their various duties and amusements ; and so 
judiciously were these planned, that a spirit of life 
and activity extremely favourable to the preserva- 
tion of health was constantly kept up, and had, no 
doubt, great influence in producing that concord 
and unity of feeling among them which were so 
conspicuous amid all their privations. 

In looking forward to a still greater diminution of 
disease in the human family, it is cheering to fix 
attention to what has been thus already accom- 
plished by the hand of authority. Had the same 
individuals who circumnavigated the globe with 
Cook, or braved the northern winters with Ross 



276 DISEASE IN CHANNEL FLEET FROM 

and Parry, been left for the same number of years 
to undergo the ordinary vicissitudes of life at home, 
unrestrained in their inclinations and conduct by 
the constantly operating and beneficent influence 
of a superior mind, it is morally certain that dis- 
ease and death would have made greater havoc 
among them than actually occurred amid physical 
privations and sufferings much greater than they 
were likely to have encountered at home. Hence 
the obvious and pressing necessity which exists of 
diffusing widely among society that species of know- 
ledge which has proved beneficial in the hands of 
those who are fortunate enough to possess it. If 
human health and happiness maybe thus effectually 
promoted by increased attention to the conditions 
which regulate the vital and animal functions, no- 
thing can be more useful than to communicate to 
every intelligent being such a measure of know- 
ledge as will enable him to do that for his own 
safety and improvement which government now 
does for those whose services it requires. 

With these successful and cheering results of 
knowledge, it will be instructive to contrast the 
fatal influence of ignorance in a situation where 
knowledge might have been effectual in preserving 
life and sparing suffering. I shall take the example 
from an early work of Dr. James Johnson,* who 
has devoted much attention to the subject of health 
and the causes by which it is affected, and whose 
work contains much valuable matter connected with 
hygiene, as well as with the history and cure of dis- 
ease. In treating of exercise, and the evils of its 
excess. Dr. Johnson says, " I shall exemplify this 
reasoning by an instructive lesson. During the late 
war, it was observed, that in its earlier periods fever, 
fluxes, and scurvy made the greatest hnvoc ; while, 
in its middle and ulterior periods, tl ese diseases 

*• On the Influence of the Atmosphere on the Health and 
Functions of the Human Frame, &c. 8vo, 2d edition, p. 193. 



IGNORANCE OF THE HUMAN BODY. 277 

almost disappeared, and pneumonia (inflammation 
of the lungs), with its too frequent consequence, 
phthisis, became infinitely more prevalent and fatal 
The facts were apparent to all, but the causes few 
could divine, Some of our chymical wiseacres at- 
tributed the pneumonic diathesis to the lime-juice 
served out ; but this hypothesis need not detain us, 
for I think a more rational explanation can be offered 
As the period of warfare was lengthened out, dis- 
cipline gradually became more perfect, and, at length 
attained its acme. Every evolution was now per- 
formed with a rapidity and precision that seemed 
the effect almost of magic. All machinery and ap- 
paratus were not only so arranged as to give human 
power its greatest force and facility of application, 
but human strength was put to its ultimatum of ex- 
ertion, and every muscular fibre of the frame called 
into furious action, during each manoeuvre of navi- 
gation or war. Thus, in exercising great guns, the 
heaviest pieces of artillery were made to fly out and 
in, or wheel round, with almost the celerity of a 
musket in the hands of a fugleman. The most pon- 
derous anchors were torn from their beds with 
astonishing velocity ; while the men were often seen 
lying about the decks breathless and exhausted after 
such ultra-human exertions !" 

" But reefing and furling sails were still worse. 
Here, as in all other operations, there was a constant 
struggle against time. The instant that the word 
"aloft" was given, the men flew up the shrouds with 
such agility, that, by the time they were on the 
yards, the respirations were nearer fifty than fifteen 
in a minute ! In this state of anhelation they bent 
across the yards, and exerted every atom of mus- 
cular energy in dragging up the sails and securing 
the reef-lines, while the thorax was strained and 
compressed up against the unyielding wood ! What 
were the consequences ? The air-cells were fre- 
quently torn ; blood extravasated ; and the origins 
A a 



278 DIMINISHED MORTALITY FROM THE 

of cough and hemoptoes continually laid. The lungs 
were now in a proper state for receiving the im- 
pression of aerial vicissitudes ; and constant ex- 
posure to night air, to rain, and every inclemency 
of the season, soon evolved the long black catalogue 
of pulmonic and phthisical maladies, which swept off 
our men in vast numbers, to the no small surprise of the 
officers, who could not divine the cause of this new and 
destructive enemy, 

" But it was not the lungs alone that suffered 
here. The central organ of circulation bore a part 
of the onus, and a host of anomalous and otherwise 
inexplicable symptoms were produced, which com- 
pletely puzzled the naval practitioners, who rarely 
suspected any lesion of the heart. These last 
affections both aggravated, and were in their turn 
aggravated by, the depressing passions engendered 
during the long confinement on ship-board and sepa- 
ration from friends and native home." 

I need hardly stop to point out to what extent the 
fatal results above mentioned might have been pre- 
vented, had the officers been possessed even of a 
superficial acquaintance with the laws of respiration 
and of muscular action. A perusal of the chapters 
on these subjects will enable the reader to judge 
for himself, and to determine whether the cause of 
the destruction was really difficult to be divined. 
Dr. Johnson, it may be mentioned, has the Channel 
and North Sea fleets chiefly in view in his re- 
marks. 

Increased attention to the organic laws has 
greatly reduced the annual rate of mortality in 
Europe, even within the last forty years, and it 
cannot be supposed that farther improvement is im- 
practicable. Dr. Hawkins, in his Medical Statistics, 
states, that in 1780 the annual mortality in England 
and Wales was 1 in 40 ; in 1790 it was 1 in 45 ; in 
1801 it was 1 in 47 ; in 1811, 1 in 50 ; and in 1821 it 
had sunk so low as 1 in 58. In cities, the diminution 



PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGfc. 279 

is still more remarkable. In London, 80 years ago, 
the annual mortality was 1 in 20 ; it is now as 1 in 
40. In Manchester, Glasgow, and other places, a 
similar improvement has taken place ; but, in some 
instances, the decrement in the rate of mortality 
has been so much exaggerated that the deaths are 
stated at only 1 in 74 — a proportion which is alto- 
gether incredible as occurring in any community. 

In France, the average mortality is 1 in 40; in 
Austria, 1 in 38 ; in Russia, 1 in 41 ; and in the 
United States, 1 in 40 ; whereas it is rated by Hum- 
boldt as 1 in 30 in South America. In Paris it is 
rated 1 in 32. 

From the greater accuracy with which statistical 
returns are obtained and preserved in France and 
on the Continent, and the inadequate means which 
we have in this country of procuring correct tables, 
as w r ell as the great disparity between the results 
obtained here and abroad, there is every reason to 
suspect, that in England, sources of error have been 
overlooked, and that the rates are consequently too 
favourable. It is difficult to believe, for example, 
that with us the rate of mortality should be so low 
as 1 in 58 ; when in France, Russia, and Austria it 
is ascertained to be so high as 1 in 40, 1 in 41, and 1 
in 38. Still, however, the returns, such as they are, 
show a manifest improvement in the value of life 
within the last forty years, which can be ascribed 
only to a greater degree of comfort among the 
people, and a more skilful treatment of their dis- 
eases. 

The principle which I am advocating is established 
even by many of the continental returns, which are 
more trust-worthy than our own. In France, the 
annual deaths in 1781 were 1 in 29 ; in 1802, 1 in 30, 
and in 1823, 1 in 40 ; and in Paris the mortality has 
diminished, in seventy years, from 1 in 25 to 1 in 
32 ; so that, though we neglect altogether the more 
than doubtful statements as to Manchester and other 



280 COMPARATIVE HEALTH IN THE 

places, with an annual mortality of only 1 in 60 or 
70, evidence enough exists to prove the proposition 
that health is intimately connected with, and de- 
pendent on, man's own conduct ; and that when the 
conditions of health shall be better understood, we 
may reasonably look forward to still brighter re- 
sults. 

It was very common at one time to eulogize the 
simple food and hardy habits of the poor and labour- 
ing classes as eminently conducive to health, when 
contrasted with the debilitating effects of the cares 
and luxuries of the rich. Experience unfortunately 
reverses the picture, and shows, by arithmetical 
arguments, that the excess of work and the priva- 
tions to which the poor are habitually exposed, pro- 
duce a much higher rate of mortality among them, 
especially in seasons of scarcity or commercial de- 
pression, than among the richer classes of society ; 
and the same thing is farther proved by the fact, that 
in the army and navy the officers almost invariably 
suffer less than the men from changes of climate, 
and from the fatigues and calamities of war. In 
France, the mortality among the infants of the 
poorer classes is said to be nearly double that oc- 
curring among those in more affluent circumstances ; 
while, in the wealthier departments, the average of 
life is twelve years greater than in those which are 
poor In London, according to Dr. Granville's tables, 
only 54*2 infants out of every 1000 births among the 
poor survive their second year ; and in Paris, also, 
the mortality in the quarter inhabited by the work- 
ing classes is nearly double that which occurs 
among the more wealthy. 

If, as seems to be the case, a corresponding dis- 
proportion occur between the rates of mortality in 
the different classes of society in Great Britain, it sug- 
gests some most important considerations, the first of 
which is the simple question, Whether that condition 
of the lower orders can be regarded as eminently 



DIFFERENT CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 281 

prosperous or natural, which subjects them to be 
cut off by death so many years before the term 
allotted to those by whom they are employed 1 It 
also illustrates, strikingly, what I have said about 
bad health being more frequently the result of grad- 
ual causes long in unperceived operation, than of any 
sudden or accidental exposure ; and proves that a 
mode of life or degree of labour is not to be rashly 
pronounced harmless, merely because its injurious 
effects are not immediately seen, and because years 
may elapse before it breaks down the constitution. 
It is blindness to the perception of this principlo 
which still misleads mankind, and renders them in- 
sensible to the agency of numerous hurtful influences 
from which, by a little exertion, they might easily 
be relieved. 

Much angry discussion lately took place as to the 
reality of the mischief inflicted by the long hours 
and unremitting exertion required in our factories 
and spinning-mills, where an unerring test might 
easily have been found. If those who contended 
that the hours of labour were not too long, either 
for the children or adults, could have produced evi- 
dence to show that, among operatives, the average 
of life was equally high as among the apparently 
more favoured classes, there would have been, at 
once and for ever, an end of the argument ; while, 
had the result proved different, the system of labour 
might justly have been deemed oppressive in the 
precise ratio in which the mortality among the ope- 
ratives exceeded that among their wealthier coun- 
trymen. No criterion could be so infallible as the 
one now proposed ; and if government possessed 
the means of obtaining accurate returns, it seems to 
me that the expense of procuring them would be 
well bestowed, as, whatever might be the result, it 
could not fail to produce greater harmony of views 
and purpose than now unhappily prevails between 
the different classes of society. 



£82 GOOD DONE BY APPREHENSION OF CHOLERA. 

Every thing which tends strongly to call atten- 
tion to the conditions which influence public and 
individua 1 health is calculated to do great good to 
the community. In this point of view I am dis- 
posed to consider the visitation of cholera to the 
British Isles rather as one of those remarkable in- 
stances in which a beneficent Providence brings 
good out of evil, and converts an apparent calamity 
into a positive blessing, than as the public scourge 
which it has been generally proclaimed. True it 
is, that many individuals have perished, and others 
suffered by it in their affections, and in their worldly 
circumstances ; but I question if airy thing short of 
the dread which cholera produced, could have com- 
bined all classes so efficiently and ardently in their 
efforts to discover and remove every thing in the 
condition of the poor and labouring portions of the 
community, which could prove detrimental to health. 
In the season of apparent danger, the importance of 
cleanliness, ventilation, warmth, clothing, and nour- 
ishment as preservatives of health, not only became 
manifest to minds on which nothing else could have 
made an impression, but their experienced efficacy 
gave an impetus to the exertions of the lower orders 
in their own behalf, which will continue to be pro- 
ductive of good, long after the cause from which it 
sprung shall be forgotten. 

The comparative exemption of the wealthier 
classes from cholera is itself sufficient to show how 
much it is in the power of man, by the proper exer- 
cise of reason in the application of his knowledge, 
to obviate the dangers to which his health is ex- 
posed ; how closely his bodily welfare is dependent 
on his own conduct and external situation ; and how 
very little, comparatively, it is the result of circum- 
stances which he cannot control or modify. In 
fact, every one who has investigated the subject 
with attention will readily testify, that, but for the 
establishment of soup-kitchens, the supplies of warm 



INFLUENCE OF HABIT. 283 

clothing, and the whitewashing, cleaning, and ven- 
tilating of the houses of the poor classes, before and 
during the epidemic, a much greater number would 
have fallen victims to its ravages. And it is conso- 
ling to know, that even those who regard such visi- 
tations as direct inflictions of a vengeful Providence, 
and as nowise connected with mere neglect of the 
laws of health, were, nevertheless, not the least 
active in enforcing and superintending the removal 
of every external cause of disease, and promoting 
the comforts and supplying the wants of the needy 
and destitute ; so that, whatever differences in mere 
belief there might be, all parties were content to act 
as if the Creator had intended the health of the 
race to depend, in a very high degree, on the care 
which was taken to fulfil the conditions which he 
has decreed to be essential to the due action and 
preservation of the various bodily organs. 

Many individuals exist who, from hereditary de- 
ficiencies, can scarcely attain tolerable health, even 
with the best care ; and many more are to be met 
with, who are exposed to bad health from the hurt- 
ful nature of the professions in which they are en- 
gaged. Many suffer, also, from vicissitudes of wea- 
ther and other causes, which we may never be able 
entirely to guard against ; but all these united are 
few, when compared to the number of those whose 
health is ruined by causes capable of removal or 
of modification, and to which they are now exposed 
from ignorance of their nature, from apathy, or from 
the want of the comforts and necessaries of life. 
If I have succeeded in calling attention to this im- 
portant truth, the great object of these pages will 
_>e accomplished ; and I cannot help repeating the 
remark already made more than once, that health is 
more frequently undermined by the gradual operation 
of constant though unperceived causes, than by any 
great and marked exposures of an accidental kind, and 
is. consequently, more effectually to be preserved 



284 INFLUENCE OF HABIT. 

by a judicious and steady observance of the organic 
laws in daily life, than by exclusive attention to 
any particular function to the neglect of all the 
rest. 

It may be said that I allow nothing for the in- 
fluence of habit in rendering situations and causes 
comparatively innocuous, which were at first dan- 
gerous. It is quite true that the human constitution 
possesses a power of adapting itself, within certain 
limits, to a change of circumstances ; but it is not 
less true, that sudden and extreme changes often 
destroy health and life before the system can adapt 
itself to the exigency, and that after making the 
most ample allowance for this source of safety, the 
protection which it affords against the active causes 
of disease is comparatively trifling. 

Where the change is sudden, as in passing from 
a temperate to a tropical climate, or even from very 
tne to very inconstant weather, the consequences to 
ealth are well known to be highly injurious. But 
irhere it is gradual and not extreme in degree, as in 
passing from winter to summer, health is not much 
endangered, because the system has time to accom- 
modate itself to its new circumstances. Different 
organs predominate in activity in different climates 
and seasons, and time is thus required to admit of 
the requisite changes taking place, without disturb- 
ing the general balance of the circulation. In hot 
countries, for example, the skin predominates greatly 
in activity in comparison with the kidneys ; whereas, 
in a cold country the case is precisely reversed. If, 
therefore, a sudden transition be made from the one 
to the other without due preparation, the rapid 
change in the distribution of the blood from the sur- 
face to the internal organs, or from the latter to the 
surface, consequent on such change, is likely to be 
attended with danger; although the same change 
gradually effected would be unattended with any in- 
jurious results, 



INFLUENCE OF HABIT. 285 

If, again, the change be from a healthy situation 
to one only a little less favourable, the consequences 
to the system will be also gradual and progressive. 
No immediate injury to health may be apparent, 
and the body may be said to adapt itself to the cir- 
cumstances, but, in reality, health will be lowered in 
tone, and life shortened, in exact proportion to the 
amount of the injurious exposure, and the state of 
the system at the time. Individuals of a peculiar 
constitution may live long, but the average of health 
and life will be positively lowered, — a fact which 
shows that the apparent exception is more a fallacy 
than a reality, and that, ceteris paribus, the highest 
health and greatest vigour will always be on the side of 
those who make the nearest approach to the fulfilment of 
the organic laws. 

It is, therefore, a glaring perversion of logic and 
reason to infer that we may safely rest satisfied 
with a limited portion of evil, on the plea that the 
constitution will adapt itself to its presence. The 
argument ought to be turned in exactly the opposite 
direction. If the constitution possesses this power 
of adaptation to the extent supposed, it becomes 
doubly incumbent on us to have it always surrounded 
with beneficial influences, seeing that, when the laws 
of health shall be fulfilled, the same tendency to 
adaptation will then operate with equal force in 
permanently ameliorating the constitution. In 
every point of view it is, therefore, an object of 
much consequence to us to become acquainted 
with and to obey ail the laws which regulate the 
functions of the human body. 

It would be easy, were it consistent with the 
limits and purpose of the present volume, to show 
that although great advances have been made of 
late years, both in physiological knowledge and in 
its applications to the advancement of human hap- 
piness, many of the usages current in society, and 
many of the practices resorted to in education, are 



286 NEGLECT OF ORGANIC LAWS 

still far from being in harmony with the laws of the 
human constitution, and that much good may be 
done by diffusing among the reflecting portion of 
mankind more accurate notions of the structure and 
uses of the various bodily organs, and of the con- 
ditions required for their healthy action. Illustra- 
tions in proof of this position, drawn from individ- 
ual cases, may be cavilled at as incomplete, or re- 
garded as accidental coincidences ; but when the 
principle is exhibited in active operation on a large 
scale, minor qualifications fall into the shade, and 
leave the evidence absolutely unassailable. On this 
account I prefer selecting an example from the rec- 
ords of the army, both as being striking in its fea- 
tures, and as being one in which the public interest 
is deeply involved. 

A few years ago, young growing lads were uni- 
formly selected for the army in preference to men 
of a mature age, on the supposition that, because 
their habits were not formed, they could be more 
easily converted into good soldiers than if taken a 
few years later. Many officers still entertain and 
act on this opinion, and the period at which, by law, 
liability to military service commences in this coun- 
try, remains fixed at eighteen years of age, although 
it has been raised to twenty by most of the conti- 
nental governments. 

Examined physiologically, the practice of enlist- 
ing juvenile recruits seems peculiarly irrational. 
During growth, the conditions required for the 
healthy development of the body are, moderate and 
regular exercise, plenty of nourishing food, abun- 
dance of sleep, and a cheerful state of mind. In 
making the transition from boyhood to maturity, the 
equilibrium of action between the different parts of 
the system is so much disturbed, that, even under 
the most favourable circumstances, an unusual sus- 
ceptibility of disease prevails, which renders that 
period of life particularly dangerous. By consult- 



IN SELECTING RECRUITS. 287 

ing the statistical tables prepared by Mr. Finlayson, 
it will be seen, that in all classes of society, the rate 
of mortality suddenly increases from the age of four- 
teen, when rapid growth may be said to commence, 
to that of twenty-three, when it is nearly completed. 
In Paris, for example, the tables for the year 1820 
exhibit only 395 deaths as occurring between the 
ages of 10 and 15 ; whereas those between 15 and 
20 amount to no less than 703, being nearly double 
while in the five years immediately subsequent they 
rise to 1339, and afterward begin again to decrease. 
Viewing these results in connexion with the laws 
of the animal economy, and bearing in mind that, 
even in peace, military service implies broken sleep, 
separation from friends, and occasional exposure to 
fatigue and privation, we must consider it almost 
self-evident, that an army composed of young lads 
belonging to this hazardous period of life must be 
sickly and inefficient, and that a large portion of the 
expense and trouble bestowed in enlisting and train- 
ing them must be entirely thrown away. That such 
is actually the fact has unfortunately been proved 
too often by fatal experience. Mr. Marshall, Dep- 
uty Inspector of Hospitals, in his late excellent 
work " On the Enlisting, the Discharging, and the 
Pensioning of Soldiers" adduces an irresistible mass 
of evidence to show, that till the growth is com- 
pleted, it is impossible to form any correct estimate 
of the probable efficiency of a recruit, as numbers 
of apparently promising young men are cut off by 
affections of the chest, and other acute diseases, be 
fore attaining maturity, and before being exposed to 
any unusual privations or fatigue. So literally ac- 
curate is this statement, that Coche, a high French 
authority quoted by Mr. Marshall, mentions dis- 
tinctly, that even in time of peace, when no great 
hardships are to be encountered, volunteers received 
into the army at the age of eighteen or twenty pass 
two, three, or four years of their period of service 



288 NEGLECT OF ORGANIC LAWS 

(eight years) in hospital, solely from inability to bear 
up under difficulties which scarcely affect those who 
are a few years older. 

If such be the result during peace, I need hardly 
say, that in time of war the practice of enlisting 
very young men is not less fatal to the individual 
than costly to the country. It appears, accordingly, 
that in the army in Spain, sickness and inefficiency 
prevailed almost in proportion to the youth and re- 
cent arrival of the soldiers. Sir James Macgrigor 
cites the 7th regiment as an illustration, and adds, 
that between 9th August, 1811, and 20th May, 1812, it 
lost 246 men, of whom 169 were recruits landed in 
the preceding June ; while only 77 were old soldiers. 
The original number of this detachment of recruits 
was 353, SO that more than one-half died within the 
first eleven months. The total number of old soldiers, 
on the other hand, was 1143, and of them only 77 
perished in the same time ! So convinced, indeed, 
is Sir James of growing " lads being unequal to the 
harassing duties of the service," that in making cal- 
culations for measures in the field, he thinks that 
300 men who had served five years would be found 
more effective than 1000 newly arrived, not simply 
from their greater experience, but chiefly from the 
additional stamina proceeding from maturity.* 

In a note subjoined to the preceding opinion of 
Sir James Macgrigor, Mr. Marshall says, " numer- 
ous examples might be quoted to show that young 
lads are much less able to endure the fatigue of 
marching than men a little more advanced in life. 
During the winter of 1805, a French army, which 
was stationed on the coast in the neighbourhood of 
Boulogne, marched about 400 leagues to join the 
grand army before the battle of Austerlitz, which it 
effected without leaving almost any sick in the hospitals 
on the route. The men of this army had served two 

* Marshall, lib. cit., p. 6. 



IN SELECTING RECRUITS. 289 

years, and 4 were not under twenty-two years of age. 
The result of the march of this army may be com- 
pared with that of another under different circum- 
stances. In the campaign of the summer of 1809, 
the troops cantoned in the north of Germany 
marched to Vienna, but by the time they arrived at 
the place of their destination, all the hospitals on the 
road were filled with sick. More than one-half of the 
men composing this army were under twenty years 
of age, the usual levy of conscripts having been an- 
ticipated. After the battle of Leipsic, Napoleon 
made great exertions to recruit his army, and called 
upon the legislative senate to give him their assist- 
ance, to which they showed some reluctance. 
' Shame on you !' cried the emperor * * *, ' I demand 
a levy of 300,000 men, but I must have grown men, 

BOYS SERVE ONLY TO ENCUMBER THE HOSPITALS AND 
ROAD-SIDES.' " 

In similar defiance of the laws of physiology, half- 
grown lads were at one time preferred for the East 
India service, on the false supposition that their un- 
consolidated constitutions would more easily adapt 
themselves to the climate than those of men already 
arrived at maturity, — a proposition very nearly 
equivalent to saying, that because a person is al- 
ready enfeebled, exposure to the causes of disease 
will therefore have less effect on him than after his 
strength shall be restored ! Palpably fallacious as 
this kind of logic now appears to be, it nevertheless 
reigned for years with undisputed sway, and it was 
only in September, 1829, that an order was issued 
from the Horse Guards that no recruits under twenty 
should be received for regiments serving in tropical ' 
climates ; and so late as the year 1826, nearly 15 
per cent, of the king's troops in Bengal were under 
that age. 

In touching upon this question also, Mr. Marshall 
supports his positions by a reference to facts of a 
very conclusive kind, and to authors whose opinions 
Bb 



290 NEGLECT OF ORGANIC LAWS 

ought to have great weight. Among other evidence, 
he quotes the register of a regiment employed in 
the Burmese territory in 1824-5, from which "it 
appears that, in 1824, the ratio of mortality among 
the young men who went out with the corps was 
38 per cent., or 1 in every 2£ ; while, among the 
volunteers who were considerably older, the mor- 
tality was 17 per cent., or only 1 in 6. In 1825, it 
was 30.5 per cent., or 1 in 3^, among the younger 
lass, and only 6 per cent., or 1 in 16, among the older" 
-(p. 10.)* 

Some other instances might be quoted in proof 
of the greatest mortality being always among the 
youngest men; and I might refer to a regiment 
mentioned by Dr. Davies, in which, when it was 
sent out to Bombay in 1808, there was not a single 
private above 22 years of age, and in which, out of 
550 men, nearly 300 required medical assistance 
within six weeks after he joined it ; but it is un- 
necessary, as, although individual officers still prefer 
young men, government is at last awakened to their 
unfitness. A vague opinion that growing lads do 
not bear fatigue is indeed prevalent enough ; but I 
venture to say, that if those by whom the age of 
enlistment was first determined had been thoroughly 
acquainted with the laws of physiology, and had 
possessed a clear perception of the conditions of 

* In availing myself of Mr. Marshall's labours, I may be allowed 
to express my opinion of the benefit he is conferring by his sta- 
tistical researches, riot only on the service with which he has 
been so long and honourably connected, but also on the public 
at large* There are many practical questions deeply concern- 
ing public health, which can only be fully elucidated by such 
masses of facts being grouped together as shall destroy all minor 
inequalities, and place the operation of principles prominently 
in view. But to effect this object with due regard to accuracy 
requires an acquaintance with details, an acuteness of observa- 
tion, and a power of successful generalization, which are rarely 
found in combination with adequate zeal and industry. It would 
be very useful if similar researches were instituted in regard to 
the occurrences in our public hospitals. 



IN SELECTING RECRUITS. 291 

healthy growth, the practice of receiving recruits 
at 17 or 18 years of age would never have been 
sanctioned, and the country would have been saved 
the pain and the expense of sending thousands of 
young men to " encumber the hospitals and the 
road-sides" of the Peninsula, or to perish under the 
exhausting influence of a tropical climate. 

I have dwelt at some length on this subject, both 
because the practice which I condemn was lately 
in full operation, and is even yet not entirely ex- 
ploded, and because, from the magnitude of its re- 
sults, and the clearness with which they can be 
traced to a direct violation of a natural law of the 
constitution, it affords an instructive example of the 
evils arising from ignorance of the structure and 
functions of the human body, and of the aid which 
might be derived from a general acquaintance with 

Ehysiology in preserving health, and promoting the 
appiness of the race. 

It was my intention to analyze, in the same way, 
various other practices in which public or private 
health is concerned, and to offer some suggestions 
for improving the treatment of the insane, by a more 
extensive observation of the conditions required for 
the healthy exercise of the mental functions ; but I 
have already so far exceeded the limits originally 
proposed, that I must now draw to a conclusion, and 
judge, by the reception of the present volume, how 
far I am right in believing that information of the 
kind now communicated will be acceptable or use- 
ful to the public 



THE END. 



